Vale Salobo copper expansion: CPF flowsheet and capex insights for mine engineers
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on MINING.com
30 Second Briefing
Vale’s Base Metals unit is accelerating a coarse particle flotation (CPF) expansion at the Salobo copper-gold mine in Carajás, lifting plant throughput by 6 Mt to 42 Mt per year and adding about 30,000 tpa of copper plus 15,000 oz of gold byproduct, with first production now targeted for H1 2028. The CPF circuit will strip waste earlier in the flowsheet to cut grinding load, raise metallurgical recoveries and reduce specific energy and water consumption compared with conventional processing. Capital cost has been trimmed to about $215 million, with Wheaton Precious Metals contributing $40 million under a revised streaming deal, leaving Vale’s net outlay near $175 million and an expected after-tax IRR above 50%.
Technical Brief
- Coarse particle flotation will be installed as an additional flotation circuit ahead of existing grinding.
- CPF removes waste rock earlier in the flowsheet, materially reducing downstream grinding duty and mill wear.
- Vale secured the construction licence from Brazil’s environmental regulator ahead of schedule, pulling forward site works.
- The CPF circuit is expected to cut both specific energy use and water consumption versus conventional flotation–grinding.
- Salobo delivered record copper output in 2024 and 2025, underpinning confidence in debottlenecking via CPF.
- Vale targets nearly 700,000 tpa copper by 2035, mainly via brownfield expansions in the Carajás region.
- Bacaba, another Carajás brownfield project, has also been accelerated, with first production now Q3 2027.
- Wheaton’s $40‑million contribution replaces future milestone payments under the existing Salobo precious‑metals stream.
Our Take
The Salobo coarse particle flotation expansion builds directly on Vale Base Metals’ earlier CPF work at Salobo III flagged on 2 April 2026, signalling that the Carajás complex is becoming Vale’s main test bed for coarse-particle and HydroFloat-type upgrades in copper.
With an after-tax IRR above 50% on a net US$175 million commitment, Salobo’s CPF project sits at the high-return end of copper projects in our database, which likely strengthens the case for Vale to replicate similar brownfield throughput debottlenecking at other Latin American assets.
The use of Eriez HydroFloat® at the Salobo Copper Complex, highlighted in the 13 August 2026 item, suggests that the current expansion is not just a volume play but also a step towards lower energy and water intensity, aligning this Brazil copper–gold operation with the more sustainability-tagged projects in our coverage.
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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