Phosphate:
Mining major CVRD has informed President Alan Garcia of its plans to invest US$479mil to develop the phosphates production at Bayovar (Piura). The project designs a phosphate concentrates plant with capacity to process 3.3mil mtpy of ores to start up operations by 2010, and also a port at Sechura to flow away exports. The concession on the270mil m tons firs class phosphates reserves at Bayovar was adjudicated to CVRD on March 2005 and this project has been on inception since then.
Publication: SABI - Business News
Provider: South American Business Information
Date: July 26, 2007
Potash:
CVRD’s Taquari-Vassouras potash mine is located in northern Sergipe State, approximately 45 km north of Aracaju.
The Taquari-Vassouras Operational Unit is a underground mine and a treatment plant on the surface. “Taquari-Vassouras” is the name of the ore deposit. This unit is the single manufacturer of potassium chloride (KCl) in activity in Brazil.
Potassium Chloride is an important component for the manufacture of fertilizers, and it is obtained through the underground mine of sylvite and later on improved by the flotation process. Presently all production is for domestic market and assure 13% of the Brazilian demand for the product.
History
Petrobrás discovered the Taquari-Vassouras potash deposit in 1963 during petroleum exploration. Petromisa, a mining subsidiary of Petrobrás, developed the mine, with production beginning in 1985.
Between 1986 and 1991, the mine produced 3.4 million tonnes of run-of-mine material (ROM) with an average grade of 20.85 percent KCl, for a total of 0.7 million tonnes of contained KCl. In December of 1991, CVRD, through a leasing agreement with Petrobras, took over the management of the potassium mine of the Unidade Operacional Taquari-Vassouras.
Since 1992 production comprised 24.7 million tonnes of ROM with an average grade of 31.80 percent KCl, containing a total of 7.8 million tonnes of KCl.
Vale also broke the record in the production and sale of potassium chloride in 2006. The total amount sold was of 733 thousand tons, 14.2% above the 641 thousand tons sold in 2005. The conclusion of the project to increase the nominal production capacity of the Operating Unit of Taquari-Vassouras to 850 thousand tons enabled the growth of the sales.
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