By IANS/EFE,
Brasilia : Brazilian mining giant Vale plans to invest $9 billion in about a dozen countries around the world through 2014, the O Globo newspaper reported, citing company officials.
The plans call for investments in various countries including Argentina, Peru, Canada, Guinea, Zambia, Mozambique, Oman, Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as in Brazil, where the firm is preparing a huge expansion of a deep-water port on the northern coast.
In Argentina, Vale’s projects include exploiting a potassium mine which just this year will require an investment of $1.2 billion.
The mine, according to data published by O Globo Sunday, is one of Vale’s biggest development projects up through 2014 and will have, during its first phase, a production capacity of 2.4 billion tonnes of potassium per year.
In Peru, Vale is proposing to increase its production of phosphate in the northern Bayovar area, investing about $100 million, a project that will also be carried out this year.
Vale, one of the world’s largest mining companies, ended 2010 with record net profits of $17.26 billion, or more than triple the $5.34 billion it made in 2009.
The company, besides being the largest iron exporter in the world, is also the biggest producer of many other metals and minerals including aluminum, manganese, coal, potassium, bauxite and phosphates.