History
Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (or CVRD, as the company was better known prior to 2007) (in English, Sweet River Valley Company) was founded in Itabira, Minas Gerais, as a public company by the Brazilian Federal Government on June 1, 1942. One year later the Vitória a Minas railroad was inaugurated. CVRD, just seven years after its foundation, was already responsible for 80% of Brazilian iron ore exports. In 1966, the company inaugurated in Espirito Santo the Port of Tubarão, which was to become the most important port for CVRD and is still used to export iron ore mined from the Iron Quadrangle in Minas Gerais.
The Carajás Mine, on which Vale still has over 1.5 billion tonnes of iron ore in reserves, started to have Vale as a majority stakeholder in 1970. In 1974, Vale became the world's biggest exporter of iron ore, a title which it still holds today. Then, in 1982, Vale began to diversify itself after it started to produce aluminium in Rio de Janeiro. Throughout its history, CVRD’s activities, once restricted to the Southeast, were expanded to the Northeast, Central-West, and North of Brazil, diversifying its mineral product portfolio and consolidating logistics services.
Vale in 1985 started to explore the Carajás Mine in the state of Pará just after the Carajás railroad was opened and in 1986 Ponta Madeira port terminal, which is still used to export iron ore mined at the Carajás Mines, was inaugurated in the state of Maranhão. This railway is 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) gauge.
Read more about this topic: Vale (mining Company)
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