Brazil’s Mineração Usiminas (Musa), a subsidiary of flat steelmaker Usiminas, will invest BRL160mn ($32.7mn) in a dry stacking system to improve its iron ore output processing.
The project will be built at its Itatiaiuçu mine in Minas Gerais state, according to local media reports. The new facility would be ready for operations in February 2021 and will generate about 400 direct jobs.
The project will enable the company to eliminate the need to build new dams and will allow greater reuse of the water used in the mineral process, by reducing water abstraction from wells or rivers.
Musa will be one of the first companies in the South American country to implement a system like this one.
The company’s iron ore sales increased by 17pc to 2.21mn mt in Q1 2020, from 1.89mn mt during the same period last year. Steel sales rose by 4pc to 1.04mn mt in the first quarter from 1mn mt produced in Q1 2019.
($1 = BRL4.90)