Vallourec invest at Barreiro Plant

Vallourec invested in additional iron ore processing equipment to deliver increased efficiencies at the Barreiro Plant in Belo Horizonte/Brazil. Prior to the delivery of iron ore to the blast furnace the existing equipment on site was not able to liberate or separate the highly clay bound fines from the lump ore on the more difficult ROMs. This led to final lump ore being sent onto the smelting process with higher levels of contamination being retained. The knock-on effect on the smelting process was the requirement to exponentially increase flux’s and coal in the removal of this contamination in order to achieve the high quality steel that they produced.

CDE identified a solution that could quickly and effectively solve a number of issues within one installation. CDE Mining will supply the AggMax 151 system to Vallourec to help tackle achieve this. The AggMax 151 is a portable log washer with sizing screen integrated onto a single chassis and will be integrated within the existing Vallourec processing plant. The introduction of the AggMax will break down the clay contamination within the lump iron ore and in the process liberate the alumina particles. The new system would also reduce the friable material present which means a lower proportion of fines will be found in the processed iron ore before it is delivered to the blast furnace.