Overview -
Samarco's Alegria iron ore mine is an open pit operation in Brazil's iron quadrangle, about 4.5km north of the depleted Germano deposit. The mine is located in the municipalities of Mariana and Ouro Preto in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. BHP Billiton and CVRD each own 50% of Samarco.
The Samarco minesite was explored in the 1970s. Operation began at the Germano pit and plant in 1978. In 1992 the Germano pit closed and mining began at the Alegria pit, which continues to this day. Processing is done at the Germano concentration plant which is connected to the mine by a 4 km long conveyor belt.
Samarco operates a complex of open-pit iron ore mines called the Samarco Alegria Complex, in the state of Minas Gerais. It also operates a concentrator at Germano and pelletising operations and port at Ponta Ubu in the state of Espirito Santo. Ore is transported from the Alegria mine to the Germano concentrator plant via a five kilometre conveyer belt. The concentrator plant has a capacity of 15.5 million tonnes a year of iron ore concentrates. From Germano, the concentrates are transported to Ponta Ubu through a 396 kilometre slurry pipeline. At Ponta Ubu, Samarco's two pelletising plants have a production capacity of approximately 13 million tonnes a year of pellets and up to two million tonnes a year of concentrate and screens product
There have been
several major expansions of the mine. In 1993, a $13 million expansion project was completed to increase production from 3.2Mt/y to 9.6Mt/y.
This was followed in 1995 by a $540 million expansion to construct a second pelletising plant at Ponta Ubu with advanced environmental protection, and to increase concentration capacity at Germano to maximise pipeline efficiency. Since 1998, the company has been producing 12 Mt/y of iron ore pellets. In 2005 mining capacity was 20.9 Mt/y; by 2008, with additional mobile equipment, this is expected to rise to 32.8 Mt/y. The mine has reserves of 4 billion tons and as of 2005 has an anticipated mine life of 20 years.
Samarco is the second largest pellet exporter in the world. Approximately 1,300 people are employed at the mine as of 2003.
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