The Sossego Mine Complex consists of two open-pit mines, Sossego and Sequeirinho, located in the Carajás region in the southeastern portion of Pará State in Brazil. Access to the Sossego Mine Complex is via a bitumen road from the township of Parauapebas. Sossego was the first copper project taken into operation by Vale and has been producing copper concentrate since 2004.
The Sossego deposit is associated with a 10 km regional structural shear zone striking northeast to southeast and dipping steeply to the south. A series of copper gold deposits are associated with this structure. The Sossego deposit has been divided into four main zones, from west to east areas: Pista, Sequerinho, Baiano and Sossego Hill of which, the Sequeirinho deposit is the most important in terms of size.
Copper ore is mined using the open-pit method, and the run-of-mine is processed by means of standard primary crushing and conveying, SAG milling, ball milling, copper concentrate flotation, tailings disposal, concentrate thickening, filtration and load out.
Vale reported an updated Proven and Probable reserves estimate for Sossego totaling 65.1 million tonnes grading 0.56% copper and 0.18 g/t gold as of December 31, 2023. No cut-off grade was available but the nearby Solobo Mine used a 0.25% CuEq cut-off grade.
