CEO Roger Agnelli says Vale in ‘best moment' in its history

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CEO Roger Agnelli says Vale in ‘best moment' in its history

Vale CEO Roger Agnelli said he prays every day for the continued growth of China's economy, and looks to Africa for the discovery of new world-class mining deposits.
Author: Dorothy Kosich
Posted: Tuesday , 19 Oct 2010

RENO, NV -

During a press conference Monday at the NYSE, Vale CEO Roger Agnelli declared the company "is doing terrifically," adding "we are in the best moment of our history; we have good assets and the best investment portfolio in the industry."

"I'm praying for China every day to keep growing," Agnelli joked. "I don't understand those businessmen in the West who thinks China is a bubble. Asia is a reality," Agnelli emphasized.

However, Agnelli cautioned, "The discovery of new world-class deposits is increasingly dependent on Africa."

"Africa will be very big in 10 to 15 years," he stressed.

In response to a reporter's question, Agnelli said the evaporation of the proposed iron ore joint venture between BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto will have no impact on Vale.

Vale, the world's top iron ore miner, has 18 large projects coming on stream between 2010 and 2012. Agnelli estimated the company will spend between $26 billion to $28 billion in two years to finish projects.

He noted Vale would like to deliver on all the projects within its pipeline before 2015. In a production report released Monday, Vale said its VNC, the former Goro nickel project, "is being successfully commissioned and has already started to produce an intermediate nickel and cobalt product, nickel hydroxide cake."

The company reported iron ore production reached 82.6 million metric tons, the best performance since the record of 85.8 million metric tons achieved in the third quarter of 2008. Pellet production achieved the highest quarterly record ever during the third quarter of 2010 with 13.6 Mt reported.

In the first nine months of this year, Vale produced 227.5 Mt of iron ore and 36.8 Mt of pellets, increasing 30.4% and 143.5%, respectively, over the same period last year.

Coal production attained a record of 12.9 million metric tons in the third quarter as did bauxite production with 3.8 Mt.

Vale's total finished nickel production during the third quarter of this year was up 21% to 44,000 tonnes as Sudbury and Voisey's Bay ramped up after a lengthy strike. Nickel production was reported at 114, 000 metric tons for the first nine months of 2010, down from the 157,000t reported during the same period of 2009.

During Monday's news conference, Agnelli noted that the nickel price "is still high, but also very volatile." Vale has the world's largest nickel reserves, estimated at 7.9 million tonnes of contained proven and probable reserves.

Agnelli also advised that Vale is executing a pipeline of copper projects that will take advantage of potential global copper deficits expected to occur in the next five years. Vale reported a 45.2% in copper production to 58,000 tonnes in the third quarter of this year.

With the end of the strike in Sudbury, Vale said copper production is expected to normalize in the fourth quarter. The company also reported 131,000 tonnes of copper production during the first nine months of this year, down from 131,000 tonnes of copper production reported during the first nine months of 2009.