Brazil major Vale has started operations at the tailings filtration plant of the Vargem Grande Complex, the first of four plants to be built in Minas Gerais at a cost of $2.3-billion.
The start-up will not only reduce dependence on dams, but will also allow an improvement in the average quality of Vale's product portfolio with the use of wet processing on the site.
In the filtration process, the existing water in the iron-ore tailings is minimised, allowing most of the material to be stacked in a solid state, thus reducing dependence on dams.
Vale will start up the first filtration plant in the Itabira complex later this year, followed by a second at the same complex next year. In 2022, the first at the Brucutu site will start operating.
The four tailings filtration plants will serve beneficiation plants that have a total capacity to process 64-million tonnes a year of iron-ore.
Vale says the start-up of tailings' filtration operations in Vargem Grande is another step in stabilising iron-ore production on the way to resume the 400-million-tonne-a-year production capacity by the end of 2022.