MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil’s Vale suspends ‘indefinitely’ 6bn potash project in Argentina

CEO Murilo Ferreira making tough decisions to meet profit targets

Brazil’s government managed Vale and the world’s third-largest mining company, suspended works at its 6 billion dollars potash project in Argentina indefinitely. A suspension at the Rio Colorado potash project in the Argentine province of Mendoza since last month will be maintained, the Rio de Janeiro-based company said in an e-mail.

Vale Chief Executive Officer Murilo Ferreira is selling assets and cancelling projects as the company is set to post the lowest annual profit in three years.

Vale is in talks with a potential partner for the Rio Colorado project, Roger Downey, head for fertilizers and coal, said last December. In that month the company cut the 2013 budget for the project to 611 million from 1.08 billion dollars last year.

“The project isn’t cancelled,” Rolando Baldasso, Mendoza province’s minister of infrastructure and energy, said in an e- mailed response to questions. “

“There are financial issues that are triggering an operational restructuring.”

Los Andes newspaper reported earlier that the project was suspended for an indefinite period and it won’t be reopened until Vale gets a partner. Vale is currently holding talks with two multinational companies seeking to seal a partnership, the Mendoza City-based newspaper said, citing an unidentified company official.

Brazil’s only potash producer, Vale said in October it has spent 1.8 billion dollars on Rio Colorado and completed 41% of the project. The venture includes the developing of a mine in Mendoza, the renovation of 440 kilometres of railway trucks and the construction of a 350 kilometre-long railway spur to transport the potash to a terminal in the port of Bahia Blanca in the province of Buenos Aires province for its export.

With the capacity to produce 4.3 million metric tons of potash, the project would make Argentina the world’s third- largest exporter of the crop nutrient, President Cristina Fernandez announced last July after signing agreements with Vale to proceed with the project.

Vale’s stock has dropped 3.4% this year.