A OK announced, on the night of last Sunday (06), a temporary interruption of the operation in Onça Puma Nickel Plant, located in the municipality of Ourilândia do Norte, in the interior of State of Pará.
According to the communiqué of companhia, the stoppage happens because of damage to the power transmission network from the local electric company due to a “strong gale” occurred on October 5th.
A mining company's expectation is that the transmission network of electrical energy be reestablished by October 15th.
As a consequence, the company foresees a estimated impact of between 1,5 thousand and 2 thousand tons on nickel production during the last quarter of 2024.
Vale reported that it will continue to assess the impacts of the shutdown and that it will take the necessary measures to resume the affected operational processes.
"There were no incidents recorded regarding the safety of employees, neighboring communities or Vale assets on site,” the company highlighted.
A Unexpected outage comes at a time of high global demand for metals, especially nickel, which is widely used in the production of batteries and other high-tech components.
Vale Power Plant
Opened in 2011, the Onça Puma nickel plant has an annual production capacity of 220 tons of ferronickel, which contains 53 tons of nickel. In total, US$2,84 billion was invested in the construction of the plant.
In 2022, company executives announced approval for the construction of a second furnace in Onça-Puma, which is expected to require an investment of around US$555 million.
The company expects to add 12 to 15 tons of nickel production capacity per year and the project is expected to begin operations in the first half of 2025.
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