Latinnews Archive
Latin American Economy & Business - 27 September 1985
VENEZUELA: Cerro S Isidro mine opened; 1985 FERROMINERA SALES AND PRODUCTION FIGURES
The Cerro San Isidro open-pit iron-ore mine, owned by the state iron-mining company Ferrominera Orinoco, was due to be inaugurated by President Jaime Lusinchi in mid-September. The mining complex, costing US$27m, lies 400 miles south of Caracas in the Guayana and has proven reserves of 395m tonnes of high iron (average 62%) low-phosphate ore which will be mixed with ore from Ferrominera's Cerro Bolivar mine to produce 'optimum quality' metal (CR-85-11). Cerro San Isidro -- the most significant development in Venezuela's iron ore industry in recent years -- is expected to produce 2mt of ore this year and 4mt a year thereafter.
Last year, Ferrominera produced 12.8mt of ore, up compared with the 9.8mt produced in 1983. 1984 sales were 12.4mt. This compared to the 10.5m sold in 1983 -- 63% of sales were for export, the most important buyers being the US and Europe. Ferrominera had a good year in 1984: profits were US 7m on sales revenues of US$124.7m.
In the first half of 1985 Venezuelan sold 6.3mt of iron ore, 11% up compared with the same period in 1984 when 5.6mt was sold, said an early September issue of the ministry of energy and mines weekly newsletter.
Between January and June this year 723,423mt was exported to the US, a 60% increase compared with the 271,925mt sold in the first six months of last year. Iron ore exports to Europe and Latin America fell 1%, from 3,041,000t to 3,024,323t, comparing the first six months of 1985 with the first half of 1984.
Domestic market sales from January to June this year amounted to 2.5mt, up by 17% compared with the 2.2mt sold in the same period last year.
Ferrominera is planning to put back onstream an iron-ore briquette plant at Puerto Ordaz it purchased from US Steel, but shut in 1982 due to technical problems. The company is planning to spend US$180m for reactivating the plant, and a further US$25m to construct a mobile ore trans-shipment unit to be located at the mouth of the Orinoco river.
Ferrominera, which is owned by the Corporacion Venezolana de la Guayana (CVG), produced 6.1 mt of iron ore in the first six months of this year. This is 3% up on production in the first half of alst year. This iron ore came from the Piar and Pao divisions of Ferrominera, in Bolivar state.
* Piar produced 4.7mt in the first six months of 1985, 6% higher than the 4.5mt produced in the same period last year.
* Pao netted 1.5mt in the first half of this year, 7% down compared with the January-June period of 1984.
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