Samarco restarts another pellet plant, output capacity to reach 60% by year-end

The newly reactivated plant, known as P3, had been idled since the collapse of a tailings dam at one of Samarco's mines in 2015. The deadly collapse had caused the company to suspend its operations for almost five years, and it was until December 2020 that Samarco started to resume its activities and is still undergoing a gradual recovery, Mysteel Global has learned.

The P3 plant, a second running pelletizing plant in the region apart from the P4 pelletizing plant, was originally scheduled for resumption in March 2025, but it was brought to operate ahead of schedule to optimize production processes with surplus ore from P4, the miner said.  

Samarco said it is pouring BRL 1.6 billion ($290 million) into the capacity ramp-ups, including the construction of a new waste filtration plant and the reactivation of another concentrator.

Currently, the company is running at 30% capacity, equivalent to the production of some 9 million tonnes/year of iron ore pellets and fines. Should the capacity rise to 60% as expected by the year-end, the production of pellets and fines will be lifted to around 15 million t/y, Samarco estimated.

Meanwhile, the company has also targeted reaching full production capacity by 2028, according to the release.

Written by Irene Zhuang, zhuangailing@mysteel.com

Edited by Alyssa Ren, rentingting@mysteel.com