[third quarter results] Vale: sales of Q3 manganese mine increased by 131 per cent month-on-month to 480000 tons

SMM10, 17 October: on October 15, Vale (Vale S.A) announced its financial report for the third quarter of 2018, which showed that Vale's manganese ore production totaled 482000 tons in the third quarter of 2018, an increase of 14.5 percent from the previous month. It was down 15.3 percent from a year earlier. In terms of sales, manganese ore sales reached 553000 tons in the third quarter of this year, up 131.4 percent from the previous month and 11 per cent from a year earlier.

Production and marketing of manganese ores and ferroalloys in Vale in the third quarter:

Vale has three manganese mines, Azul, Urucum and Morro da Mina.

Azul:

Due to weather-related seasonal factors, Azul's production totaled 272000 tons in the third quarter of this year, an increase of 16.2 percent compared with the second quarter, but due to the lower grade of mines, production decreased by 28.8 percent in the third quarter of 2017 compared with the third quarter of 2017. As a result, product utilization is reduced.

Urucum:

Production at the Urucum mine totaled 175000 tons in the third quarter of this year, up 11.5 per cent from a month earlier and 9.4 per cent from a year earlier, as a result of pre-production stoppage.

Morro da Mina:

The output of the Morro da Mina mine was 34000 tons, an increase of 13.3% from the previous month and 25.9% from the same period last year. The substantial increase in production was mainly due to the two-shift operation strategy implemented in April 2018.

Output contribution of three manganese mines under Vale:

In terms of ferroalloys, Vale produced a total of 43000 tons in the third quarter of 2018, including 21000 tons of Si-Fe-mn alloy (FeSiMn), 15000 tons of high-carbon manganese alloy (FeMnHC) and 7, 000 tons of carbon-manganese alloy (FeMnMC).

Varieties of ferroalloys in Vale: