Brazilian miner to resume work after court clears way

Brazilian miner Vale SA said on Tuesday that a local court had cleared the way for it to resume operations at its Brucutu mine, its largest iron ore complex in the state of Minas Gerais, the country's longtime mining heartland. Production at Brucutu has been halted since early February when a court order halted the adjoining Laranjeiras dam soon after the collapse of a Vale dam about 150 km (94 miles) away killed some 300 people.

Laranjeiras receives waste material from Brucutu, which has an installed capacity of 30 million tonnes of iron ore, or around 8 per cent of Vale's planned annual production in Brazil before the disaster at the upstream tailings dam at Brumadinho. Vale shares jumped 2.8 per cent in Sao Paulo on Tuesday to 51.90 reais each, recovering from a poor performance the day before when another court decision shut two more dams operated by the company.

But the miner also received favorable news on Monday, with a decision from a Rio de Janeiro judge allowing it to resume iron ore shipping at the Ilha Guaíba export terminal in Mangaratiba, from where the company ships some 40 million tonnes of iron ore per year. Vale said it was waiting for local authorities in the region of the Brucutu mine to be notified about the court decision and allow it to resume work at the complex.