Vale Base Metals’ Salobo CPF upgrade: design and retrofit notes for plant teams
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on International Mining – News
30 Second Briefing
Vale Base Metals is fast-tracking a Coarse Particle Flotation (CPF) project using the Eriez HydroFloat® process at its Salobo Copper Complex in Brazil to lift throughput and copper recovery on coarser grind sizes. The CPF circuit, installed as a brownfield upgrade to the existing concentrator, is expected to deliver a material increase in processing and production capacity with what Vale describes as “exceptional” project economics. For plant designers and metallurgists, the move signals growing confidence in HydroFloat-scale CPF as a retrofit option for large copper concentrators.
Technical Brief
- Project schedule has been accelerated, with Vale explicitly describing the CPF deployment as “expedited”.
Our Take
Vale Base Metals has already flagged coarse particle flotation for the Salobo III copper operation in Brazil in the 2 April 2026 item, so expediting this CPF project at the Salobo Copper Complex likely reflects a broader roll-out strategy across the Salobo hub rather than a single-plant trial.
Eriez’ presence here, alongside its ultrafine coal flotation work highlighted in the 13 July 2026 coal story, underlines that suppliers are now marketing a full particle-size envelope of advanced flotation solutions, which could give Brazilian copper operations like Salobo more optionality in circuit redesigns.
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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