Mining company signed R$184mi lease contract for area to install solid bulk terminal
09/27/2022
Mining company Bemisa, part of the Opportunity group, signed on Monday a contract worth R$184 million to lease an area in the Suape port complex, in Pernambuco, where it intends to build a solid bulk cargo terminal with an estimated investment of R$1.5 billion.
The venture is part of a larger project that includes an iron ore mine in Piauí and a railroad to replace what would be the Transnordestina railway in the Pernambuco stretch, with 717 kilometers. The three projects total more than R$10 billion in investments, of which about R$5.7 billion refer only to the railway part.
The lease contract for the 57.8-hectare area is valid for 30 years and was signed with the government of Pernambuco. The terminal in Suape will have the capacity to receive and ship 50,000 tonnes of ore per day, besides the potential for storing 780,000 tonnes. When it is operational, the terminal is expected to employ 400 people.
Bemisa’s project is presented as an alternative to part of the original Transnordestina project. Begun in 2006, the railroad was only half finished – the stretch that goes through Ceará – under CSN’s command.
Luís Vidal, a member of Bemisa’s board, says that the idea is to undo the regulatory knot, improving legal security, and thus reduce the project’s risks to attract more investors interested in using the railway to export production through Suape.
Bemisa and the government of Pernambuco have begun discussing alternatives to unlock the Transnordestina situation in 2019. In December, the company obtained permission from the Ministry of Infrastructure to build a railroad starting in Eliseu Martins (Piauí) and running through Pernambuco with a similar route to that of Transnordestina.
According to Mr. Vidal, the project is vertical and its three parts (mine, railroad and terminal) are interdependent. “The election is an important step for us to know how the federal government is going to position itself in relation to all of this. Investors will also respond to the new government and we will be able to attract them more quickly or not,” Mr. Vidal said.
Governor Paulo Câmara (Brazilian Socialist Party, PSB) said that Bemisa’s project can be a structured solution for several productive arrangements in the Northeast region. Port of Suape CEO Roberto Gusmão highlighted the grains of Matopiba (region bordering the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia), the fruits of the São Francisco River Valley, and the plaster producing region of Pernambuco.
*By Marina Falcão — Recife