OREANDA-NEWS. Vale announces that it has worked and invested continuously in its environmental control systems. From 2007 to 2014, as part of an Environmental Commitment Agreement signed with the State Environment Institute (IEMA), the Public Prosecution Service and the Greater Vitória Residents Association, the company invested 800 million reais to equip Tubarão Complex's entire production system – from the arrival of iron ore to its loading onto ships – with advanced environmental control technologies. By 2020, Vale will have invested approximately 1 billion reais in environmental control measures in its operations at Tubarão Complex, adding together all its investments in recent years.

To continue with this initiative, last year the company completed a project to increase the amount of dust suppressant used in the handling of pellets at all plants. The proportion was raised from 200g to 500g of glycerine per metric ton of pellets produced, improving the product's efficiency. Over the course of 2015, the company also completed improvements to the electrical system of its electrostatic precipitators, enabling a reduction of around 25% in the emissions of pelletizing plant chimneys in relation to 2014.

These and other measures under way, such as the implementation of new monitoring cameras for the Environmental Control Centre and testing of new polymers, are part of the investment plan announced by the company last year, to be implemented by 2020.

In addition to these initiatives, Vale has implemented its "Summer Plan", which intensifies routine environmental control measures in the areas most susceptible to typical weather variations during the season. This plan mainly involves stockyards used to store and handle products (iron ore, pellets and coal) and also paved and unpaved roads and other areas. The company is intensifying its sprinkling and washing of more than 50 km of paved roads, besides sprinkling and applying polymer to areas not normally covered by this procedure, such as areas between stockpiles. These measures entail intensifying controls in more than 90% of the total area containing potential emissions sources, amounting to 1.5 million square metres.

The Summer Plan also involves the start of some initiatives that will become permanent, such as improvements to the sprinkler system for rotary car dumpers and the use of mobile industrial sprinklers to clean plant areas, among other things.

In addition, the company announces that its activities are routinely inspected by the environmental authorities of Espírito Santo. However, joint action by all those responsible for different dust sources is necessary to ensure better perceptions of air quality in the Greater Vitória region.

Measures of this nature certainly affect much more than Arcelor Mittal Brasil and Vale, generating a great deal of legal uncertainty for the entire business community, which will undoubtedly reduce the state's competitiveness in attracting new investments.

Vale also announces that it has a program of guided tours of its industrial site, starting from Vale Botanical Park. In January, these tours, which are open to the whole community of Greater Vitória, are taking place at six different times of day, from Tuesdays to Sundays.