Vale S.A., a Brazilian multinational metals and mining corporation, announced on March 16 that the company has gradually started operations of the tailings filtration plant at the Vargem Grande Complex, which was the first of the four tailings filtration plants that Vale planned to install in Minas Gerais.

The company planned to invest a total of US$2.3 billion in the construction of four tailings filtration plants between 2020 and 2024.

The commissioning of the tailings filtration plant could enable the company to reduce its reliance on dams, and it could also increase the average quality of Vale's product portfolio through wet processing operations.

Also, it was an important step in Vale's stabilization of iron ore production and recovery of 400 million tons of production capacity by the end of 2022.