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2/4/19

Business

Temporarily halt operations of the Vargem Grande Complex

The current temporary suspension of the Vargem Grande Complex aims to further accelerate the process of decommissioning

Rio de Janeiro, February 4th, 2019 - Vale announces, in addition to the Press Release dated January 29, 2019 ("PR") on the acceleration of the already existing plan to decommission its dams built by the upstream method since 2016, its decision to anticipate the temporary suspension of the production of concentration plants of the Vargem Grande Complex.

It is important to reinforce that in 2016, after the disruption from Samarco's tailing dam, Vale decided to decommission all of its 19 existing upstream dams for iron ore in Brazil. Over the last few years, all of them have become inactive and have kept their reports of stability issued by specialized and independent companies. Since this decision in 2016, 9 of these upstream dams had been completely decommissioned, after the authorizations of the competent authorities, pending the other 10, out of which the Vargem Grande dam is one of them.

The current temporary suspension of the Vargem Grande Complex aims to further accelerate the process of decommissioning mentioned in the PR, as it will allow the immediate start of data collection to develop a detailed project plan.

The suspension of the Vargem Grande Complex accounts for approximately 13 million tons of wet-processed iron ore per year out of the total estimate of 40 million per year announced in the PR, an impact that will be partially offset by the increase in production of other systems of the company.

 

Media Relations Office - Vale
imprensa@vale.com

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