OREANDA-NEWS. From March 2-8, delegation of Omani executives visited Vale operations in the Brazilian states of Rio de Janeiro, Espirito Santo and Para. The purpose of the group’s trip was to discover good practices in socio-cultural development and corporate volunteering programs to implement back home.

While in Brazil the community-based efforts are coordinated by the Vale Foundation, in Oman social investment is left to Jusoor. The difference in this case is that the Omani entity is the result of a joint venture between Vale and two other companies—Sohar Aluminium and Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company (ORPIC)—, hence the name Jusoor, which in Arabic means connection, bridge.

The Rio de Janeiro leg of the tour included a visit to the Vale-sponsored Botanical Gardens. Next, the group headed to Espirito Santo, where they got to see the Serra Knowledge Centre, a youth educational development and sports centre run by the Brasil Vale Ouro Program. It was this location that caught the group’s attention the most, as they stated their intention to replicate the model in their home country. The visit wrapped up in Para, where they were given a tour of Carajas, the largest iron ore mine in the world.

Vale in Oman

Vale’s main strategy for Oman is to be situated in the vicinity of its biggest consumer market—Asia. In 2009, our company paved the way for the construction of the Sohar Industrial Complex, which comprises a pelletizing plant with an annual capacity of 9 million metric tons, a bulk terminal and a distribution centre with a capacity to produce 40 million metric tons. The project was inaugurated in March 2012 and funded with a total investment of USD 1.25 billion.