Truckless $20 Billion Venture Seen Key to Vale Revival: Freight
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Vale SA is replacing trucks with 23 miles of conveyor belts and building a second railway through the Amazon to cut costs and retake the title of world’s second-largest mining company by value from Rio Tinto Group.
Vale’s Serra Sul project, part of the Carajas mining complex in northern Brazil, is the industry’s most expensive project ever at almost $20 billion. It will also be the first major iron-ore venture to fully replace in-mine trucks with conveyor belts, according to the miner. The project, which has absorbed $1.8 billion in investment so far, will allow Vale to reduce mine-to-port costs at Carajas to about $15 per ton, half the company’s current operational cost.