[Ferro-Alloys.com] Vale is operating a nickel-processing plant at the Onca Puma project, an Amazon mine where a court has ordered mining activities halted. However, while the plant continues to process ore into ferronickel, Vale has stopped operations at the open pit mine where it obtains the nickel ores. The Federal Public Minister in Brazil’s Para state said on Friday the company had not been complying with the order from the Superior Justice Tribunal for more than a month but did not specify in what way. It was not previously known that the processing plant was still operating, and while ferronickel processing is not a mining activity, it is not clear if the continued operation of the plant was what the MPF was referring to in saying Vale was violating the shutdown order.

The court order said Vale had violated the mine’s environmental license and polluted the nearby Catete River with heavy metals. Indigenous groups in the area and the MPF both say birth defects in the Carajas region, where the mine is located, have been linked to toxins in waters near the plant. The region has long been home to informal wildcat gold mining, an avtivity that has polluted waterways in Brazil’s Amazon region with toxic chemicals such as mercury.

This summer a federal court ordered Vale to pay one-million reais to each indigenous village until it establishes a compensation program for the communities. Vale’s Para operations face frequent legal and protest actions by native Brazilian groups. Vale has said the company follows the law and does everything it can to help local communities where it operates, and that it should not be held responsible for health issues not caused by its facilities.

The Onca Puma mine has a capacity of 62870t and the ferronickel processing facility has a capacity of 53000t, though it produces less than half of that.

• [Editor:Juan]