Anglo American receives next phase of licence for Minas-Rio

Anglo American has received the next phase of its operating licence for its Minas-Rio tailings facility in Brazil, it announced on Monday, following work to raise the dam as part of the ‘Step 3’ licence area of the mine.

The FTSE 100 mining giant said the regulatory authorities in Brazil granted the installation licence for the work in January 2018, with the construction work completed in accordance with that licence in August of this year.

It said the Minas-Rio tailings dam used a downstream construction design, and was an embankment dam structure built using compacted imported earth-fill material, with “carefully selected” granular materials for the drainage and filter zones.

Tailings were not used to build the dam, and instead construction materials were placed in controlled layers.

That was a “conservative and high quality” design for a tailings dam, Anglo American claimed, being designed and built as a water-retaining type of dam.

“This is an important milestone for our Minas-Rio iron ore operation in Brazil towards reaching its full potential,” said Seamus French, chief executive officer of bulk commodities.

“Minas-Rio has a long asset life of 48 years and produces a high grade, premium quality product for our customers, supporting lower emissions in the steel industry.

“We expect Minas-Rio to produce 23 million tonnes in 2019, with a free on board unit cost of [around] $24 per tonne.”