RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazilian miner Vale expects to more than replace the four-million tonnes a year of potash it stands to lose from the cancellation of its Rio Colorado project, in Argentina, as it opens mines in Brazil and Canada, its top executive said on Wednesday.
At least two-million tonnes a year of potash output is expected from its Carnalita project, in Brazil's north-eastern state of Sergipe and three-million to five-million tonnes a year could be mined from its Kronau project, in Canada's province of Saskatchewan, CEOMurilo Ferreira told reporters on Wednesday.
Vale cancelled plans to build the $6-billion Rio Colorado project, in Argentina, in March on concerns the country's currency-exchange policies made the mine, rail and port project unprofitable and after being denied legal tax breaks. It is now trying to sell shares of its fertiliser unit or stakes in specific fertiliser projects, Ferreria said.
"We are looking for partners in our fertiliser business," he said at an annual holiday lunch with reporters. "But if the partner takes a stake in our fertiliser unit, we don't want someone who is just a financial partner, we want someone who has their own production already."
A decision to move forward with Carnalita could be made as early as the first quarter of 2014, he said. Vale mines potash and nitrates and makes nitrogen-based fertilisers.
On October 9, Reuters reported that the $4-billion Carnalita project could be producing by 2017, citing officials in Sergipe. The mine would be built in two phases: a $2-billion startup to produce 1.2-million tonnes a year and a second $2-billion phase to raise output to 2.4-million tonnes a year, Sergipe officials told Reuters.
Carnalita is one of several potash projects Brazil's government wants to build quickly to ease dependence on fertiliser imports and replace Vale's cancelled Argentine potash plans.
Brazil, the world's largest exporter of beef, chicken, soybeans, sugar, ethanol, orange juice and coffee, relies heavily on imported fertiliser to enrich its extensive but often nutrient-weak farmlands. About 90% of Brazil's potash needs are imported. Carnalita alone would supply about 15% of Brazil's needs.
Vale preferred shares, the company's most-traded class of stock, were up 0.5% at 31.89 reais in Sao Paulo, their first gain in seven days.
MOZAMBIQUE RAILWAY
A decision on a Vale fertiliser partnership would likely have to wait until the it finished a planned sale of half of its 70% stake in the Nacala Railway project. The railway links Vale's giant coal project in the Moatize region of Mozambique with an Indian Ocean port.
The railway stake is being sold to help belay the cost of the $4.4-billion, 912 km railway, which will also be used for non-coal general cargo in an attempt to open up the Mozambique interior to large-scale farming, Ferreira said.
In September Vale agreed to sell a majority stake in its VLI Brazilian rail and port general cargo unit to Japan's Mitsui Co, Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management and the FGTS worker compensation fund managed by Brazil's government.
A deal on the railway is expected by mid-2014, he said.
Vale's nickel business is working hard to increase productivity, Ferreira said, with Vale's planned consortium with international metals producer and trader Glencore Xstrata nickel projects in Canada's Sudbury region likely to be signed in the first quarter of 2014.
The so-called non-corporate joint venture will operate Glencore and Vale's operations around Sudbury, a city in the northern part of Ontario, "as a single unit."
This and other efforts to cut nickel mining costs will leave Vale well-placed to deal with the impact of any potential nickel shortages in China because of Indonesia's decision to ban nickel ore exports and force miners to smelt the metal domestically.
"If costs stay low, we won't make as much money, but we are efficient so if costs go up it will help us," he said.
Ferreira also told reporters that Vale's 50/50 "Samarco" Brazilian iron-ore joint venture with Australia's BHP Billiton signed a contract with Nucor Corp, the largest US steelmaker by market value.
Vale has had little success in the past selling iron-ore to the US, whose mills obtain most of their ore from mines on or near the Great Lakes and other waterways that keep transportation costs cheap. Such costs are a major factor in iron-ore prices.
Vale has said it hopes the US natural gas and oil boom based on unconventional reserves will help boost the country's energy-intensive industries such as steel, helping Vale gain new customers for its ore, which needs less refining to be brought up to steelmakers' standards.
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