Gleuza Jesue, the general manager of environmental matters in Vale’s energy department, stated that the construction of the first unit with a power generation capacity of 600 MW is intended to begin in March 2010 and is expected to be operational in December 2012.

The company is planning the mining to commence in 2010, and Vale expects the full capacity production of 8.5 million tonnes of hard coking coal and 2.5 million tonnes of thermal coal a year.