Anglo American Brasil (Anglo Brasil) has reported that it expects the first shipment of iron-ore from its Minas-Rio project, currently under construction, to take place in the second half of 2013. The mine itself should be completed in 2012.

Key licences and permits have been obtained, and secondary environmental licensing is under way. Once complete, the Minas-Rio operation will have an annual production capacity of 26.5-million tons of iron-ore and will permanently employ 1 300 people and create 3 500 indirect jobs.

“The Minas-Rio project has entered a phase of rapid evolution,” Anglo American Brasil Iron Ore Business Unit (previously Anglo Ferrous Brazil) CEO Stephan Weber stated in a press release to the Brazilian media last week.

“The next months will be [a time] of intense transformation with the completion of important elements, such as the works at the port. Of the total $5-billion that will be invested in the complete construction, Anglo American has now invested 49%.”

The Anglo American group acquired this project in 2008 from Brazilian miner MMX, and today Anglo Brasil describes Minas-Rio as the global group’s “principal project”.

Minas-Rio includes a mine being developed at Conceição do Mato Dentro and a beneficiation plant being constructed at Alvorada de Minas (both in Minas Gerais state). The beneficiation plant will convert the iron- ore into high-grade pellet feed.

The pellet feed will be mixed with water to form a slurry, which will then be pumped to the coast along a 525 km slurry pipeline, which will be the longest such pipeline in the world and which will run to the coast at Açu, near São José de Barra, in Rio de Janeiro state.

There the pellets will be dried before being loaded onto ships.

A dedicated iron-ore export port is being built at Açu in a joint venture (JV) with Brazilian logistics group LLX. Anglo American has a 49% share in this JV. (LLX is a sister company of MMX, both being part of the EBX group.)

Currently, about 9 500 people are employed in the construction of the total project. To date, 53% of the engineering, civil engineering and supplies have been executed or obtained. In terms of civil engineering works, only 44% has been completed.

For the beneficiation plant, the figure is 15%, but the earthworks for its facilities are ahead of schedule and 73% has been completed. The civil works for the plant’s main substation are 30% complete.

Concerning the slurry pipeline, 25%, or 131 km, has been com- pleted. The pipeline’s construction has seen the movement of eight-million cubic metres of earth so far. The construction of the pipeline will require the excavation of six tunnels, with a total length of 3 200 m, of which two have been completed. Two more are cur- rently being excavated and the last two are in the tendering phase.

Two pumping stations and a valve station also form part of the pipeline system. Of these, the civil works at one of the pumping stations have been completed and the fitting of its electromechanical systems has started. At the second pumping station, the civil works are in their final stage and, at the valve station, they are still under way.

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