Spotlight: Vale’s latest technology, automation projects

Brazilian miner Vale continues advancing technology projects aimed at improving its processes, increasing productivity, and reducing costs and redundancies in internal systems.

In its core business, new technologies are being used mainly for decarbonization, tailings dam refitting, safety and mining efficiency.

In the second quarter, Vale’s capex was flat at US$1.3 billion, in line with full-year guidance of US$6.5 billion.

Of the total for the quarter, investments in sustaining operations (sustaining capex) were US$1bn, up US$168 million year-on-year, and including capex for dam management, technology and innovation, mine equipment and mining fleet.

The dam decommissioning program will be 53% complete by the end of this year, according to the miner. Overall, Vale plans to invest US$2.2bn in new operating processes, including tailings filtration systems, from 2019 to 2027.

Of the total sustaining capex, US$613mn went to iron ore solutions and US$372mn to energy transition metals.

Vale also reported US$328mn in capex for its growth projects, down 13% year-on-year. These are expenditures that refer to new operations and initiatives in development.

In a separate statement, Vale said it increased throughput by 30% at the Salobo copper project through technological developments such as coarse particle flotation.

NEW PROCUREMENT PROJECT

Among its newest initiatives, Vale unveiled new technology aimed at simplifying procurement processes and streamlining purchases.

Called the supply transformation global program, seven companies enrolled: Accenture, Coupa, Procurement Garage, Beroe, Sievo, Linkana and CH Master Data.

Vale said it seeks to enhance its volume of autonomous purchases, mainly by using AI and machine learning.

The project's overall goal is to replace more than 20 of Vale’s systems with Coupa’s integrated and intelligent platform, making processes simpler and faster. 

Another 90 control processes are expected to be automated, boosting process governance.

Accenture was the main consultancy behind the project’s structuring and the selection of Coupa and the other partners. Full implementation is expected to occur by 2026. 

California-based Coupa provides enterprises with a cloud-based business spend management platform, which monitors and manages purchase orders in real time. Engie, Cargill, Wilson Sons, Airbus, Schneider Electric, Nestlé and Mexican university Tecnológico de Monterrey are some of Coupa’s other clients.

In all, the company reports over 3,000 global clients and 10mn suppliers, with around US$6 trillion in assets under management by its systems.

São Paulo-based Procurement Garage is a consultancy with expertise in procurement, supply chain and logistics, while North Carolina’s Beroe provides a cloud-based procurement intelligence and analytics platform and dashboards.

Among the partner systems used by Beroe are Coupa’s, as well as SAP’s Ariba, a traditional suite for procurement and supply chain.

While being a client of other management software solutions developed by SAP, Vale ended up declining to use the German company's suite for procurement.

Finnish company Sievo is another procurement analytics solutions provider, with technology focused on extracting, classifying and enriching data across ERPs, procurement systems and external data sources.

Brazilian startup Linkana, for its part, developed a platform to organize and automate the registration of suppliers under the supplier relationship management (SRM) concept.

Another Brazilian company, Rio de Janeiro-based CH Master Data, is specialized in optimizing and managing databases for maintenance, repair and operations inventory.

NETWORK

Regarding connectivity, the iron ore giant has a contract with Telefônica Brasil and Nokia since 2019 related to the installation of dedicated 4G networks, with the potential to upgrade to 5G at some of its main sites.

The connectivity project lays the groundwork for the automation of Vale's mining operations and the use of autonomous vehicles, among other initiatives.

“The Vale project in particular is very complex, possibly one of the largest in the world because it involves a mine, a port and a railway. There are three chains in one,” Márcio Nicolay, head of Nokia Enterprise Verticals, told BNamericas last year.

Last September, as part of this private network project, Vale announced the deployment of 4G along the Carajás rail line, which connects the states of Maranhão and Pará, passing through 28 cities.

The initiative includes the installation of 49 new towers and signal activation at another 27 towers that operate along the route, in addition to the acquisition and installation of new equipment. 

The investment is around 240mn reais (US$42.6mn) and it is expected to be completed in 2025.

Leveraging the 4G in Carajás, Vale in May announced a new contract with US rail technology firm Wabtec to increase the efficiency and operations of its fleet. 

Under the 10-year deal, valued at 1.8bn reais, Wabtec will analyze locomotive performance data from the last three years and provide real-time monitoring for 5,000 parameters of the locomotives currently operating on the Carajás system.