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    Vale Base Metals’ coarse particle flotation at Salobo: design and energy notes for mine engineers

    April 3, 2026|

    Reviewed by Joe Ashwell

    Vale Base Metals’ coarse particle flotation at Salobo: design and energy notes for mine engineers

    First reported on International Mining – News

    30 Second Briefing

    Vale Base Metals plans to deploy coarse particle flotation at the Salobo III copper operation in Brazil, with COO Alfredo Santana flagging the project during VBM Day on 31 March 2026 as a key example of its operational “excellence” drive. Coarse particle flotation typically targets significantly larger grind sizes than conventional cells, cutting energy use in comminution and improving water recovery, which is critical for large-scale copper concentrators. For Salobo, this points to potential debottlenecking of milling circuits and higher overall copper recovery without major new grinding capacity.

    Technical Brief

    • Deployment is framed by Vale Base Metals as part of an “excellence” programme led by COO Alfredo Santana.

    Our Take

    Vale Base Metals’ move to deploy coarse particle flotation at the Salobo copper mine in Brazil comes as it is simultaneously investing up to US$200 million in the Thompson nickel complex in Manitoba, signalling that process-intensity and recovery improvements are being pursued across both its copper and nickel portfolios rather than on a single flagship asset.

    The earlier order of 16 AutoMine-ready Sandvik surface drills for Vale Base Metals’ Brazilian copper operations suggests that Salobo III is being set up as a highly automated, high-throughput operation where coarse particle flotation can complement digital drilling and blasting to optimise fragmentation and downstream energy use.

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    Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.

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