Vale SA chief executive officer Gustavo Pimenta said the company “fell behind in the copper race” and will seek to regain ground by accelerating the development of its own mining assets, rather than looking at potential deals.
“Our opportunity lies more in developing our mining potential than in possibly making a transaction,” Pimenta said Wednesday on the sidelines of a conference in Sao Paulo. “Our potential for product development is greater than that of our competitors.”
The global mining industry has seen a flurry of dealmaking, driven largely by the desire to expand production of copper — a metal essential to the global energy transition. This week, Anglo American Plc agreed to acquire Canada’s Teck Resources Ltd., creating a more than $50 billion company in one of the biggest mining deals in over a decade.
Pimenta cited the Teck-Anglo combination as highlighting the favorable supply-demand outlook that’s underpinning copper.
Vale will focus on accelerating projects in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, Pimenta said. The company earlier this year said it was spending 70 billion reais ($13 billion) on Amazon investments for iron ore and copper by 2030.
The Brazilian company produces about 350,000 tons of copper a year and forecasts doubling that amount by 2035. Speeding up copper projects including Alemao and Bacaba is a top priority, Pimenta said.
The Rio de Janeiro-based miner cut its full year capital expenditure guidance for 2025 to a $5.4 billion-$5.7 billion, from a previous $5.9 billion estimate. The reduction is concentrated in the copper and nickel business. Pimenta said the adjustments came from efficiency gains and that Vale isn’t giving up on any projects.
(By Mariana Durao and Dayanne Sousa)