Venezuela's iron ore output is expected to rise in the second half of the year, as international raw materials prices seems to have started a recovery, Cesar Navarro, the country's minister of mining and steelmaking, said Friday. "The rebound [in raw materials prices] has allowed the reactivation of the production and potentially spur fundamental investments in mining," he said in a ministry statement.
Navarro recalled that iron ore saw its lowest price in the international market in 2015 and also in the beginning of 2016, "but have now stabilized."
Venezuela's sole iron ore producer, Ferrominera Orinoco, produced 12 million mt of iron ore in 2015, or 86% of its initial plan for the year. No figures of the first half of 2016 were disclosed.
The company plans to expand its annual iron ore production capacity to 40 million mt from the current 25 million mt within the next three or four years as a consequence of planned railway construction.
Based in Puerto Ordaz, Bolivar state, FMO supplies ore to all of Venezuela's steelmakers and HBI producers and, depending on production and domestic demand, allocates product for export.
