Vale's long-awaited new iron ore project kicked off commercial operations with cargoes on three bulkers.
The S11D project, which has been in the works since 2009, will produce 90 million tonnes per annum of iron ore at full capacity, making it the largest mining operation in the world.
Vale loaded the first 26,500 tonnes of ore produced from the mine on three vessels last Friday at the expanded Ponta da Madeira marine terminal in Sao Luis. The S11D cargoes were supplemented with ore from other mines.
The vessels were the Berge Bulk-owned 388,000-dwt Berge Neblina (built 2013), the Centrofin-owned 175,800-dwt Evgenia (built 2011), and the 84,000-dwt Quintana-owned Q Kennedy (built 2015).
Fixture lists show Cargill chartering the Evgenia for the voyage to the Dutch port of Ijmuiden at $6.60 per tonne.
