Samarco to return in early Q4

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From Yahoo:

Samarco, joint venture between Brazil’s Vale SA and Australia’s BHP Billiton , expects to restart production at its iron ore mine in Minas Gerais by the start of the fourth quarter, its chief executive told Reuters on Thursday, less than a year after a burst tailings dam there killed 19 people.

CEO Roberto Carvalho said iron ore pellet production for the initial two to three years would likely be at a reduced 19 million tonnes per year as the company develops a long-term plan to store the mining waste known as tailings.

Before the dam disaster, Samarco was producing about 30 million tonnes per year.

“All our focus is turning to the restart,” Carvalho said at the company’s headquarters in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Brazil’s mining heartland. “We have talked to our clients, they have given us all the help possible and are awaiting the return of Samarco.”

Another 10 million tonnes was lost by Vale owing to some equipment failure which could be made up elsewhere so a net 10 million tonnes lost by Q4. Hello new price lows.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.