Mineração Vale Verde has completed the construction of its mine and copper and gold processing plant in Alagoas, Brazil.
The company indicated on Tuesday that the Serrote mine will produce 22,000mt of copper equivalent per year over an estimated life of 14 years. The plant has a processing capacity of 4.1mn mt of ore per year.
Serrote has proven reserves of 52.7mn mt grading at 0.6pc copper, although probable reserves could reach 85.7mn mt of ore grading at 0.52pc copper. Vale Verde noted that the project has been completed before time and within three months of the miner acquiring a $140mn line of credit.
The Brazilian company announced that it will ship its first batch of copper concentrate from Serrote in November.