Norsk Hydro facing legal issues over ore pipeline maintenance

The public prosecutor’s office of Brazil’s Pará state filed a lawsuit to suspend maintenance at a bauxite pulp pipeline operated by Mineração Paragominas, a unit of Norway's Norsk Hydro, alleging a lack of community consultations.

Maintenance was scheduled on a 29km stretch crossing the municipalities of Tomé-Açu and Acará. Overall, the 246km pipeline also crosses Paragominas, Ipixuna do Pará, Moju, Abaetetuba and Barcarena. It was installed in 2008 and the operating license was renewed in 2022 for five years.

The prosecutor’s office aims to mitigate risks related to the work and which could affect the agricultural activity of 80 families.

Sustainability startups

Similar issues have attracted a host of companies that offer solutions. Of the 42 startups worldwide that focus on mining sustainability, 22 are based in Brazil, according to a study by consultancy BIP Brasil and FIEMG Lab, the innovation unit of Minas Gerais industry federation FIEMG.

"The mining sector has presented a series of opportunities for innovative companies because large companies are looking for solutions to make their operations more green and more sustainable," Bruna Silva Barbosa Pereira, the coordinator of FIEMG Lab, told BNamericas.

VALE 

Brazilian mining titan Vale created Agera to advance its sustainable sand business. 

Based in Nova Lima, Agera receives sand resulting from waste treatment at Vale's iron ore operations in Minas Gerais and promotes its commercialization and distribution. The new company also invests in research and development.

“We created Agera with the aim of scaling a business that is helping us reduce the use of dams and piles in Minas Gerais, as well as contributing to replacing natural sand, which is often extracted in a predatory way from riverbeds. The creation of Agera is strongly linked to our strategy of promoting circular mining, which means strengthening the concepts of circular economy in mining, of associating economic development with better use of natural resources,” Vale business director Fabiano Carvalho Filho said in a press release.

Vale started producing sustainable sand in 2021 after seven years of research. Since then, around 900,000t have been sold to the civil construction sector and used for road paving. The company aims to sell 1Mt in 2023 and 2.1Mt in 2024. Agera projects 18mn reais (US$3.6mn) in revenue this year.