Iron ore futures in China, the world’s top consumer of the steelmaking raw material, and in Singapore were lower in early trade on Monday after miner Vale SA got approval to resume activities at a major mine in Brazil.
Dalian Commodity Exchange’s most-traded iron ore, for delivery in January 2020, slipped 1 percent to 616.50 yuan ($87.69) a ton.
On the Singapore Exchange, the front-month December contract fell 1.5 percent to $80.52 a ton.
Vale, the world’s largest iron ore miner and China’s main source of high-grade material, said on Friday it had been authorized by Brazilian regulator ANM to resume Alegria mine operations, which were interrupted last March after a “stress test” failed to guarantee its stability.
The company said the resumption of mining activities at Alegria will allow it to restore 8 million tons of 50 million in capacity lost after the collapse of its Brumadinho dam in January caused a series of shutdowns.
The mine’s resumption will add up to 1 million tons to production volumes in 2019, but should not impact sales this year, it said. – Reuters
