Brazilian miner Vale sees no indication of any environmental or social breach at two of its mines in Para state that had their operating licences suspended this week, Vale Base Metals chair Mark Cutifani said on Friday.
Speaking at a conference call about the miner’s fourth-quarter results, the executive said that the suspensions could have happened due to an administrative issue, adding that “if anything’s wrong, it will be corrected”.
The environmental secretary of Para state in northern Brazil suspended environmental licences for Vale’s Onca Puma nickel mine and Sossego copper mine earlier this week.
The secretary said the suspension was caused by irregularities with an annual environment report, as well as “non-compliance with actions to mitigate impacts from mining activities, resulting in conflicts with communities close to the area of influence of the projects”.
Cutifani said the furnace in Onca Puma had already been shut down and maintenance was scheduled for Sossego soon, adding that Vale would “work to resolve these issues quickly and appropriately with the authorities”.
(By Peter Frontini; Editing by Gabriel Araujo and Jan Harvey)
