On Tuesday (17), Vale inaugurated the Pico Blocks Factory, the first pilot plant of products for civil construction whose main raw material is the tailings from the mining activity. Installed in Mina do Pico, in the municipality of Itabirito, in Minas Gerais, the factory will promote the circular economy in the iron ore beneficiation operation.

After the test period, the expectation is that, each year, around 30 thousand tons of tailings will no longer be disposed in dams or piles to be transformed into 3.8 million pre-molded products of wide application in the construction industry. The factory will produce articles such as interlocking floors, structural concrete blocks, sealing blocks, concrete slabs, shackles, sealing blocks, among others.

According to Rodrigo Dutra, executive manager of Environmental Licensing at Vale, this is the company's first initiative to reuse waste. "In addition to making our operations safer and more sustainable, we want to encourage the development of innovative solutions that create value for neighboring communities and society".

Vale has been conducting tailings application studies since 2014. Its use in civil construction, replacing natural sand, is also an environmental solution. According to the United Nations, sand is the second most exploited natural resource in the world, after water. The material is scarce and globally subject to illegal and predatory extraction. "Vale's sandy tailings, resulting from the processing of the ore, have a high silica content and a very low iron content, with the advantage of high chemical and granulometric uniformity", highlights Dutra.

The company will invest about R $ 25 million in research and technological development (R&D) in the first two years of the Pico Blocks Factory, which will count on technical cooperation from the Federal Center for Technological Education of Minas Gerais (CEFET-MG). Ten researchers from the institution will act in the research in this period, among professors, laboratory technicians and students of graduate, undergraduate and technical course.

"The main advantage of being in a factory installed inside a mining unit is the ability to research the application of various wastes and validate the technology, developed in the laboratory, in the productive environment on an industrial scale. This model will enable the transfer of technology in a more efficient way, constituting an environment favorable to innovation ", explains Augusto Bezerra, lead researcher of the project and professor at CEFET-MG. During R&D time, products will not be marketed.
 

Innovation and diversity

The block factory occupies an area of 10,000 m² within the Mina do Pico unit, in the Vargem Grande Complex. "The plant was designed in modules to promote versatility in the development of various types of products for civil construction, such as transport infrastructure, housing and urbanization works", explains Laís Resende, one of the engineers responsible for the initiative.

In addition to being built according to occupational health and safety standards, the entire production system of the factory is automated, avoiding the physical wear of the team in handling the parts. According to Karina Rapucci, executive manager of the Vargem Grande Complex, the plant was designed to be sustainable in all aspects. "In addition to reusing the waste, the factory promotes safety, ergonomics and comfort for the team. This project is also aligned with the movement for diversity and inclusion in mining, since it was carried out and will be operated by women ".

Eight women will take care of all the plant's processes. Ana Luiza Marinho, a resident of Itabirito, was one of those hired to work at the factory. " It is a privilege to have been chosen to act as an engineer in an initiative that follows the principles of the circular economy, reusing rejects as inputs and still helping to reduce the extraction of non-renewable natural resources. I believe that the objective of the block factory, together with the women's team, shows how the company has been evolving, looking to the future and taking care of the communities close to its operations ".
 

Investments in reuse of mining waste

Vale plans to replicate the block factory in other units in Minas Gerais, after the R&D period at Mina do Pico. The company also maintains a partnership with more than 30 organizations, including universities, research centers and national and foreign companies, to develop solutions for the reuse of mining waste in different sectors of the industry.