Vale Base Metals agrees to repurpose refinery waste

The miner is partnering with BluestOne to repurpose refinery waste at a nickel mine in Brazil.

BluestOne is a Brazilian company that transforms waste to products for agriculture.

The offtake agrement is expected to be around ~50,000t per annum of slag from Vale's Onça Puma operations for 10 years

The non-binding memorandum of understanding allows further cooperation in waste-to-value and circular mining from both the Onça Puma mine and Vale's operations globally. This includes potentially bolstering BluestOne's production of recycled nickel from waste products around the world.

BluestOne will start construction within two years of a plant near the miner to process the slag products into a solution that enhances carbon-efficient mineral fertilisers with broad use in the agricultural sector.

The companies will also work together on other partnerships including using fertiliser from slag for biomass production.