OREANDA-NEWS. October 25, 2012. Vale delivered a solid operational performance in 3Q12, dealing successfully with a challenging environment through operational flexibility and our wealthy endowment of mineral resources. Production of iron ore in 3Q12 was 83.9 Mt, 4.2% above 2Q12, with gains in all mining sites. Over the last twelve-month period ended on September 30, 2012 output reached 317.4 Mt.

Pre-stripping in the N5 South mine in Carajas was initiated in 1H12 and production is expected to start by the end of the year. It has over one billion metric tons in proven and probable reserves with an average Fe content of 67.1%. The mine will contribute to improve the quality of our iron ore supply in the coming years, thus enhancing one of our main competitive advantages in the global marketplace.

As previously disclosed, we are reallocating an additional portion of our iron ore production from the pelletizing process to the supply of sinter feed. This is to come in line with the cyclical behavior of the demand for raw materials by the steel industry, which is for more sinter feed and less blast furnace pellets at this stage of the cycle.

To implement the change, operations at the Sao Luis, Tubarao I and Tubarao II pellet plants are being temporarily halted.

The ramp-up of Moatize and Bayovar led to all-time quarterly output figures for metallurgical coal, at 1.2 Mt, and phosphate rock, 2.1 Mt.

On October 4, the Lubambe operations – the Konkola North project – produced the first copper concentrate. It is located in the African Copperbelt, Zambia, and is our second project to start-up in the natural resources-rich African continent.

The Lubambe operations, which are controlled by a 50%-owned JV, have an estimated nominal capacity to produce 45,000 t of copper in concentrates per year.

Mt = million metric tons, t = metric tons