São Paulo – Vale Fertilizers is going to invest 3.8 billion reals (US$ 2 billion) in the state of Minas Gerais, according to a protocol of intentions signed last week by the governor Antonio Anastasia and the company’s CEO Murilo Ferreira. Out of the total amount, 3.6 billion reals (US$ 1.96 billion) will go into the building of a mining complex in the municipality of Patrocínio, to explore a bed of phosphate, an input for fertilizer manufacturing.
Anastasia said that the project and the increasing of domestic fertilizer production will enable imports to be lowered. Ferreira underscored the importance of these projects to food production. “This will replace the huge amount of imported product. It should substantially lower the industry’s dependence on fertilizer imports. Particularly at this time of worldwide, this means more jobs across the entire production chain of Brazilian agriculture, which is so notably efficient. This means more food, more dignity to our people and more development to our dear Minas Gerais and to Brazil,” he said.
The governor of Minas Gerais and Ferreira also signed an addendum to the protocol of intention for Vale Fertilizers’ investment in Uberaba. The initial protocol for the project was signed 2008, as Vale acquired the company Fosfértil, whose name was changed to Vale Fertilizers. In Uberaba, phosphoric acid, sulphuric acid, and high-rate phosphate product plants will be expanded.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
