Copper price set for worst week since 2022 as China Plenum disappoints
Copper prices have retreated from a record hit in May on concerns about the strength of demand in China.
Vale (NYSE: VALE) has resumed operations at the Salobo 3 processing plant, located in Brazil’s Pará state, following a one-month suspension.
The operation had been halted since June 16 due to a fire on one of the plant’s conveyor belts, the miner said.
With the normalization of operations at Salobo 3, Vale said in a statement this week that the copper production guidance for 2024 remains unchanged, estimating production of 320,000 to 355,000 tonnes.
Salobo reached a capacity of 32 million tonnes per annum in 2023, following the successful completion of the throughput test for the first phase of the Salobo III expansion project.
The $1.1 billion expansion plan, launched in 2019, is set to increase the mine’s throughput capacity to 36 million tonnes per year by the final quarter of 2024.
At around 1,800 km², Carajás is Vale’s second-largest land holding in a region known for iron oxide copper-gold deposits, of which Salobo is a prime example. The mine, the largest copper deposit ever discovered in Brazil, is estimated to hold more than 1 billion tonnes of the red-colored metal.
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