Vale SA develops green cement for mining projects

One of the world's biggest mining companies is entering the construction business.

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Vale SA is starting to extract sand from material left over from iron ore processing to supply civil construction projects in Brazil. Rogerio Nogueira, head of ferrous marketing, said that the Rio de Janeiro-based mining giant is developing a type of low-emission geopolymer cement that will use the mining-waste sand.

Vale's so-called sustainable sand and green cement initiatives are part of the mining industry's push to clean up its own operations and supply chains as the world struggles to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The plan is to spin off successful initiatives in a type of corporate venture capital, Nogueira said in an interview.

The cement project is still in development while the sand operation has begun with a modest 250,000 metric tons of cement before ramping up to at least 1 million tons next year. Vale could potentially produce 50 million tons, which is about what is contained in its iron ore tailings. That compares with Brazil's more than 300 million ton sand market and the global industry of around 40 billion tons, most of which comes from illegal dredging.

The sand is a critical commodity to the world and has a lot of impact on the environment because of river dredging, according to Nogueira.

Vale is looking at other uses for the sand, such as ceramics, beyond cement and road pavement. Universities in Australia and Switzerland are studying possible applications of sand made from mineral ores, using Vale s as a case study.

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