Minas-Rio is an iron ore mining project in Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. It is one of the world's largest mining projects, and is initially expected to export 26.5 million tonnes of iron ore in 2013, through a 525km slurry pipeline

Slurry pipeline

A slurry pipeline is used in mining to transport mineral concentrate from a mineral processing plant near a mine.- Overview :The concentrate of the ore is mixed with water and then pumped over a long distance to a port where it can be shipped for further processing. At the end of the pipeline, the...

 to a port at Açu

Açu

Açu is a municipality in the state of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil. The population in 2007 is 52,000 , and the area is 1,292 km². This place name comes from the Tupi language.-External links:**...

; production potential is 53 Mtpa or higher.

The project was bought by Anglo American PLC, which is facing high costs. The mine has certified reserves of 4.6 billion tonnes of itabirite

Itabirite

Itabirite, also known as banded-quartz hematite and hematite schist, is a laminated, metamorphosed oxide-facies iron formation in which the original chert or jasper bands have been recrystallized into megascopically distinguishable grains of quartz and the iron is present as thin layers of...

.

There have been delays in starting the project, but in December 2010, Anglo American obtained a key license needed from Brazilian government before mining could start.