Vale Is Close to Approving $1 Billion Copper Expansion
- Building out the Salobo mine would take about three years
- CFO said in August miner planned to make copper announcement
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Vale SA, flush with cash from its booming iron-ore sales to China, is expected to approve a $1 billion expansion of a Brazilian copper mine later this month, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
Building out the Salobo mine -- known as the Salobo 3 project -- would likely take about three years to complete and add about 50,000 tons to capacity at the mine in Para state, the person said, asking to remain anonymous because the talks are confidential. Salobo currently produces about 200,000 tons of copper a year.