IRON ORE OPERATION
Slurry pipeline leak halts Anglo mine in Brazil
Anglo American’s most controversial mine, the Minas Rio iron-ore operation in Brazil, has been temporarily halted because of a leak in its 530km pipe that pumps iron-rich slurry to the coast for export. The Minas Rio mine has cost $13bn to buy and build, falling well behind production targets and, according to some analysts, was the reason for the departure of Cynthia Carroll as Anglo CEO, the project being the one she agreed to buy and develop, running into stiff headwinds, particularly in securing the necessary permits for the pipeline across 33 municipalities. Mark Cutifani, the bluntly spoken Australian appointed to replace Carroll, said in February "we overpaid for the resource" and there "were a number of errors". Anglo had learned hard lessons from the project, he said, responding to a comment from Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Jason Fairclough that Anglo "didn’t really cover itself in glory with Minas Rio". The break in the world’s longest slurry pipeline was detecte...
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