Vale Int Share Discussion Threads

[podgyted] 07/6/2020 13:05

BBC 3/6/20:-

"Brazil's industrial production plummeted by 18.8% in April from the month before the coronavirus outbreak.

Newly released official figures show it was also a 27.2% drop compared to the same time last year, the deepest decline since industrial production started being tracked by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) in 2002.

Lockdown measures hammered the country's economy in April, the IBGE says, calling the fall in production "historic".

Brazil is the epicentre of the virus in Latin America, with more than 31,000 deaths and the world's second-highest number of confirmed cases."

[waldron] 17/5/2020 05:59

Vale sets aside $2bn to cut a third of its carbon emissions by 2030

MiningIndustrial Minerals

By Andrew Fawthrop 14 May 2020

The Brazilian mining giant wants to cut 33% of its carbon output in the next decade, but the target doesn't include Scope 3 emissions
Vale S11D Project - vale agency

Vale says it will target net zero emissions by 2050 (Credit: Vale Agency)

Brazilian miner Vale will spend $2bn on a programme to cut its Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 33% by 2030, as part of a longer-term plan to reach net zero by 2050.

It is the largest financial commitment from any mining firm to-date to address its carbon footprint as outside pressure mounts on companies to accelerate their decarbonisation plans in line with the Paris Agreement.

However, little mention was given to Scope 3 emissions – those resulting from the end-use of a company’s products and services which account for the vast proportion of greenhouse gases in the value chain – other than that it “aims to establish a goal to encourage clients and suppliers in the same direction”.


Investment in mine electrification will be key for Vale as it seeks to lower carbon emissions

Vale CEO Eduardo Bartolomeo said: “This agenda is a result of a listening process, aligned with a real climate change-related demand from society for a robust reduction in emissions in the Scope 1 and 2.

“We are stepping forward to develop a new pact with society with more transparency and responsibility.̶1;

Measures planned by the strategy include rolling out the use of biofuels, the electrification of transport used in mining operations and more widespread use of renewable power sources.

Vale’s executive for institutional relations, Luiz Eduardo Osorio, added: “One of our goals is to achieve 100% of self-production of electric power from clean sources, such as wind and solar, in our plants around the world.”

By the end of the year, the miner expects several pilot projects to be in operation, including an electric train riding the Vitória-Minas railroad and electric vehicles being used at three sites in Canada.


Lack of clear Scope 3 targets limits impact of Vale’s commitment

Climate issues are rising up the corporate agendas of extractive firms with growing urgency, as concerned investors demand more decisive action to limit emissions and the pace of global warming.

Last week, a report from the Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) – an investor-led programme controlling more than $18tn in assets that scrutinises companies preparedness for the low-carbon transition – revealed a “significant gap” between mining firms’ climate strategies and the goals of the Paris Agreement.

The report noted that, despite Vale’s stated climate ambitions, the fact that Scope 3 emissions are not included in its targets means the company is further away from alignment with the agreement in 2050 than it is today.

Vale is not alone, however, with TPI finding that just two of the world’s 10 largest mining companies – holding market capitalisation of $350bn and responsible for more than 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions annually – are currently aligned with limiting global warming to 2°C in line with the Paris climate targets.


Mining industry as a whole has work to do to become aligned with Paris Agreement goals

TPI co-chairman Adam Matthews said that while the mining industry has made “significant progress” in its environmental commitments in the past six months, more needs to be done.

“Our analysis shows that not all commitments cover all activities and companies will need to go significantly further to meet investor expectations from initiatives such as Climate Action 100+,” he added.

“Many assessed companies mine materials that both support the transition and those that do not. It is essential that investors have a complete picture of their carbon performance, which includes public targets for Scope 3 emissions.”

Yesterday (13 May), the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund – Norway’s $1tn Government Pension Fund Global – excluded mining giants Glencore and Anglo American from its investment portfolio for breaching its criteria on coal-related activities, and put BHP under observation.

The fund’s managers also excluded Vale for its involvement in two fatal tailings dam collapses in Brazil – the Samarco incident in 2015 and the Brumadinho disaster in 2019 – that killed hundreds of workers and caused significant damage to the local environment.

[waldron] 04/4/2020 08:07

podgyted
4 Apr '20 - 08:45 - 3345 of 3345
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Vale still struggling with its tailings dams:-

[the grumpy old men] 21/2/2020 08:57

Vale Swings to a Loss After Impairment Charges on Mines


Brazilian iron-ore miner Vale SA posted a net loss in the fourth quarter after taking impairment charges on a nickel mine in New Caledonia and a coal mine in Mozambique.

[waldron] 20/2/2020 15:20

Anglo American PLC, one of the world's largest miners, gave a full picture of fatalities related to its operations Thursday, a major shift in an industry that typically undercounts the number of deaths.

A Wall Street Journal investigation revealed in December that many mining deaths are not captured by global safety statistics, making the industry seem safer to regulators, investors and consumers.

Four Anglo American employees were killed at its managed operations in 2019, the company said in its full-year results. Taking into account other incidents -- including employees who died off-site in road accidents, two who died in 'security incidents' and one at a joint venture that Anglo doesn't manage -- a total of 18 miners died.

Miners don't report deaths at joint ventures they don't manage, despite having influence over health and safety policy, leaving dozens of fatalities off the books. Fatalities that occur during the transportation of mined materials are also often undercounted.

"We are not terribly good as an industry at reporting all incidents," said Anglo's Chief Executive Mark Cutifani. "They are our colleagues, we know them all, so we report all of those types of incidents," he said, talking of some of the deaths outside of mine sites last year.

Between 2010 and 2018, the world's three largest publicly listed miners, BHP Group Ltd., Rio Tinto PLC and Vale SA, reported 117 deaths globally at their managed operations.

There were an additional 89 deaths of workers during the same period at joint ventures the companies weren't running, according to a Journal analysis of company and government records, stripping out double counting.

Miners have reduced fatalities and injuries in recent decades, but a lack of reliable accounting in the most basic safety metric makes it difficult to determine the extent of any gains.

The pressure to improve safety and transparency is especially intense after a mine-waste dam operated by Vale burst last year, unleashing a river of mud in the Brazilian town of Brumadinho.

In another example of how mining deaths are underreported, the Brazilian government doesn't count many contractors who die in mining accidents. As a result, as many as 139 of the 270 people who died at Brumadinho weren't classified as mining deaths.

BHP, the world's largest miner, also recently began disclosing in some publications all deaths at all of its operations. Anglo went further on Thursday by tallying all deaths related to its operations high in its annual results announcement and placing that number alongside fatalities at managed operations.

Write to Alistair MacDonald at [e-mail]



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 20, 2020 09:50 ET (14:50 GMT)

[maywillow] 18/2/2020 10:19

Glencore Sees Carbon Emissions Falling as Coal Mines Fade Away

Thomas Biesheuvel, Bloomberg News








A bucket wheel excavates soil and rocks as a giant excavator operates at the open pit lignite mine, operated by RWE AG, in Hambach, Germany, on Monday, Aug. 13, 2018. Not far from Germany’s Rhine River, a fight to thwart giant excavators from grinding away what’s left of the 1,200-year-old Hambach forest came to a head this month as thousands of protesters faced off with police in a tense, and at times violent, showdown. Photographer: Alex Kraus/Bloomberg

A bucket wheel excavates soil and rocks as a giant excavator operates at the open pit lignite mine, operated by RWE AG, in Hambach, Germany, on Monday, Aug. 13, 2018. Not far from Germany’s Rhine River, a fight to thwart giant excavators from grinding away what’s left of the 1,200-year-old Hambach forest came to a head this month as thousands of protesters faced off with police in a tense, and at times violent, showdown. Photographer: Alex Kraus/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Glencore Plc, the world’s biggest shipper of thermal coal, has mapped out cuts in carbon emissions generated by its customers as the company slowly retreats from the dirtiest fuel.

The world’s biggest resource companies, from miners to oil majors, are under increasing pressure to account for the pollution created when their customers burn or process the materials they produce.

Glencore said on Tuesday its so-called Scope 3 emissions will fall by 30% in the next 15 years, predominantly as a result of depleting mines in Colombia and South Africa. That’s a projection based on its current mine plans, rather than a fixed target. Glencore did not say how much coal production would be cut to meet the projection.

Glencore has faced the brunt of a growing investor concern about climate change. While its biggest rivals are in the process of exiting coal, Glencore has been a staunch defender of the fuel, saying it’s essential to providing affordable and reliable power in developing countries.

Still, the commodity trader’s billionaire chief executive officer, Ivan Glasenberg, has been forced to make concessions to keep investors. Last year, Glencore agreed to cap coal production, albeit above its current output level.

The mining industry has yet to find common ground on how to deal with scope 3 emissions. BHP Group in July called on the mining sector to take ownership of emissions that result from product sales, a stance that’s been rejected by some rivals who argue it’s too difficult to calculate a supplier’s share. Rio Tinto Group is partnering with a Chinese steelmaker to develop methods to cut pollution and improve the steel industry’s environmental performance, while Vale SA has said it will develop ambitious targets to cut Scope 3 emissions.

Arguably, the Scope 3 emissions of the oil industry are even more difficult to calculate. That hasn’t stopped companies like Repsol SA and BP Plc from setting net-zero emissions targets for all the oil and gas they extract and their customers burn.

Glencore said the reduction in emissions will derive mainly from its Colombian coal assets, and to a lesser extent from its South African and Australian mines. The Colombian market is currently under pressure as it predominantly ships to Europe where countries are cutting their use of the fuel, while South Africa has challenges with labor relations and government policies.

“Our capital expenditure reflects significant current investments towards growth in production of battery and conductive materials required for the transition to a lower carbon economy,” Glencore said in the statement.

--With assistance from Akshat Rathi.

To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Biesheuvel in London at [e-mail]

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at [e-mail], Dylan Griffiths, Nicholas Larkin

[grupo guitarlumber] 30/12/2019 14:35

Brazilian mining firm Vale to divest stake in Longyu for $152m

MiningCoalMajor Commodities

By NS Energy Staff Writer 30 Dec 2019

Longyu operates two coal mines in the province of Henan, producing about 3.4Mtpy of metallurgical and thermal coal
handshake-3298455_640

Vale to divest stake in Chinese company Henan Longyu Energy Resources. Credit: Pixabay/Adam Radosavljevic.

Brazilian mining company, Vale has agreed to sell its entire 25% stake in the Chinese company Henan Longyu Energy Resources (Longyu) to the Yongmei Group (Yongmei) in a deal worth CNY1.065bn ($152m).

Longyu is operated by Yongmei, which is a subsidiary of Henan Energy and Chemical Industry Group.
Longyu operates two coal mines in China

Longyu currently operates two coal mines in the province of Henan in Central China’s Yellow River Valley, producing about 3.4 million tonnes per year (Mtpy) of metallurgical and thermal coal.

The deal is planned to be completed in the first quarter of 2020, subject to conditions precedent to the transfer of the stake.

The sale is a part of Vale’s strategy for capital allocation and business portfolio rationalisation.

In addition to China, Vale operates the Moatize mine in Mozambique. The mine, which produces hard coking coal and thermal coal, has been in production since September 2011.

Earlier this year, Vale announced plans to invest BRL1.8bn ($444.5m) by 2023 to strengthen the stability of the surviving structures near the collapsed Brumadinho tailings dam in the Minas Gerais state in Brazil.

The Brumadinho tailings dam, which is associated with the Córrego do Feijão iron ore mine of the company, collapsed in January 2019, killing more than 240 people.

Vale said it was seeking ways to reduce the flow of tailings into the Paraopeba River, stabilise structures, and rebuild public facilities.

The company said that it had started various projects for the geotechnical safety of remaining structures at the Córrego do Feijão mine in the rural area of Brumadinho. As part of that, the company had also initiated the removal and proper disposal of tailings, and environmental repair, particularly along the impacted stretch of Paraopeba River.

In August, the world’s largest iron ore exporter, headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, recorded a second consecutive quarterly loss in 2019, seven months after the dam disaster at its mine.

[misca2] 30/11/2019 10:15

The Daily Telegraph: Diamond magnate Beny Steinmetz has lost a $2 billion legal battle with Brazilian mining giant Vale.