adding 60 percent to the nominal nickel capacity of a site that has been
producing since 2011. The expansion is the most visible single
investment in Brazilian nickel during 2025 and signals how Vale intends
to consolidate its Brazilian base during a volatile period for the
global market.¹
approximately 40,000 tonnes per year, from approximately 25,000 tonnes
before the expansion.¹ The capital commitment required was substantial
by single-site standards but not transformational at Vale's overall
corporate scale — a clear signal that Vale treats Onça Puma as a
sustained strategic asset rather than a short-cycle commodity play.
The engineering logic of a second furnace is worth explaining.
high-temperature processing through a rotary kiln or electric furnace,
and the residence time and heat integration are engineered for specific
throughput ranges. A single-furnace operation can operate efficiently at
capacity but suffers disproportionately when its furnace requires
maintenance or when ore-feed quality fluctuates. A two-furnace operation
can load-balance between the two units, run redundant during maintenance
cycles, and flex throughput to meet delivery schedules.
as valuable as the incremental capacity. In a nickel market where
supply has been swinging by 10-15 percent year-on-year, reliability is a
competitive advantage that Onça Puma can now offer customers in ways it
could not before.
concentrates nickel into laterite profiles — but the commercial context
is different. Brazilian laterites are generally smaller in absolute
tonnage than Indonesian ones, but they are positioned close to existing
industrial infrastructure: roads, electricity, trained workforce,
supplier networks developed over decades of iron-ore mining in Pará.
structures that are competitive with, though typically not lower than,
for its iron-ore operations. Power supply, haul-road access, port
infrastructure at Itaqui — all of these shared assets reduce the unit
cost of nickel production at Onça Puma relative to what a standalone
operation in a less-developed mining region would require.
The ferronickel product itself sells into a specific market.
high iron content of ferronickel (roughly 75 percent iron and 25 percent
nickel) makes it attractive for steelmakers who can incorporate both
metals in their melt. Onça Puma's output flows primarily to Chinese,
Japanese and European stainless-steel mills through long-term contracts.
been the centre of Brazilian mining for more than forty years. The
province's anchor assets are Vale's iron-ore mines, but it also hosts
the Sossego and Salobo copper-gold operations, the associated by-product
gold output that is meaningful to Brazilian gold supply, and now the
expanded Onça Puma nickel operation.
specific operational benefits. Shared procurement, shared
workforce-training pipelines, shared logistics coordination through
these reduces the effective operating cost of an individual mine
relative to a standalone configuration.
deposits along the Carajás-Tapajós-Alta Floresta axis imply geological
potential that could support additional Vale operations in the coming
decade. If the exploration pipeline delivers, Onça Puma's capacity
addition may ultimately be one of several capacity steps rather than an
isolated event.
also operates smaller nickel assets and holds development-stage
positions in several Brazilian states. When combined with the Canadian
operations at Sudbury and Thompson, Vale's total consolidated nickel
production reached 177,200 tonnes in 2025, with 2026 guidance of
basis — a meaningful proportion that reflects Vale's deliberate strategy
of building Brazilian nickel capacity alongside its legacy Canadian
assets. As Sudbury and Thompson face ageing orebodies and rising unit
costs, Brazilian nickel capacity offers the company a path to maintain
overall consolidated output without dependence on declining assets in
declining jurisdictions.
project in Pará; several junior developers hold advanced-stage
exploration positions across the north and centre-west of the country.
headline suggests.
production of nickel in 2025, ranking the country in the upper half of
the global producer table.² Brazilian rese