Anglo American restarts Minas-Rio iron ore operations

Anglo American said it had restarted operations at its Minas-Rio iron ore operation in Brazil after the discovery of two leaks in a slurry pipeline earlier in the year led to a shutdown.

The company said it expected the operation to ramp up to 1.2m tonnes (wet basis) per month and to produce approximately 16m-19m tonnes (wet basis) of iron ore in 2019.

Minas-Rio is expected to report an underlying EBITDA loss of $320m for 2018, compared to guidance of a loss of $300m-$400m.

The restart follows an extensive and detailed technical inspection of the 529km pipeline that carries the iron ore from the mine to the port, the pre-emptive repair of certain sections of the pipeline, and receipt of the appropriate regulatory approvals, Anglo said.

“The inspection of the entire pipeline by specialist pipeline inspection devices (PIGs), and the analysis of the collected data by expert teams drawn from Brazil and internationally, confirmed the pipeline's integrity,” it said.

Anglo American said it replaced a 4km stretch of pipeline where the two leaks of non-hazardous material had occurred, as well as a small number of individual sections of pipe where the PIGs detected minor anomalies below the normal threshold for intervention.

It also shortened the intervals for future inspections to two years from five years and fitted a fibre-optic system of acoustic, temperature and vibration sensors along critical sections of the pipeline to monitor its performance.