Posted by Paul Moore on third December 2024
Vale has began the commissioning of the Capanema Maximization Challenge, positioned 80 kilometers from Belo Horizonte, between the municipalities of Santa Bárbara, Ouro Preto and Itabirito, within the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The location is a part of Vale’s Operational Advanced in Mariana and is anticipated to extend iron ore manufacturing by roughly 15 Mt/y. The operation will use pure moisture processing, which avoids the addition of water within the course of and the era of tailings, thus eliminating the usage of tailings dams.
“We’re restarting operations on the Capanema mine utilizing secure, environment friendly and sustainable practices. Capanema will produce sinter feed at low price and won’t generate tailings. The mine will use autonomous vans, which is able to enhance security and scale back CO2 emissions from the operation,” stated Gustavo Pimenta, CEO of Vale.
Capanema will develop Vale’s pure moisture manufacturing. This kind of operation, also called dry processing, already accounts for greater than 70% of the corporate’s iron ore manufacturing in Brazil. The tactic has fewer manufacturing levels, with much less environmental affect, and eliminates the necessity for water within the processing, thus avoiding the era of tailings.
Investments had been made to reactivate and restart the Capanema mine. A protracted-distance conveyor belt system was additionally put in to move the iron ore produced at Capanema to Timbopeba, within the municipality of Ouro Preto. The conveyor belt was put in on the corporate’s premises, linking the models and lowering truck site visitors within the area. Changes had been additionally made to the product stocking and loading yard on the Timbopeba rail terminal to move the manufacturing through the Vitória-Minas Railway (EFVM) to the Port of Tubarão, within the state of Espírito Santo.
Roughly 40 contractor firms and greater than 6,000 individuals labored on the peak of building, with precedence given to native employees. Vale additionally sponsored eight skilled coaching programs for the communities close to the challenge.
Innovation can also be current on the Capanema Challenge. The unit’s complete fleet of haul vans will likely be autonomous, selling larger security and effectivity in operations. The automation of processes, in addition to the combination of the Mariana Advanced mines by conveyor belt, will scale back emissions by 160 t of CO2e per yr, equal to the annual emissions of 127 compact automobiles.
Vale has autonomous haulage expertise, together with with each Komatsu’s FrontRunner AHS at Carajas on Komatsu 930E vans and with Caterpillar Command for hauling at Brucutu on Cat 793F vans.
The challenge is a crucial step in direction of reaching Vale’s iron ore manufacturing steering of 340-360 Mt in 2026, and can improve the flexibleness of the corporate’s operations and product portfolio.
