Brazilian mining company MMX Mineração e Metálicos has won a 10-year offtake deal from Minervest Mineração, which will help the viability of its new Sudeste port.
Minerinvest will sell up to 5m tones of ore a year to MMX, at a base of $64 per tone for ore with 63.5% iron content, while Sudeste port will offer port operation services for ore at a tariff of $19.77 per tone including tax, MMX said in a statement.
The port, due to open in the third quarter of 2012, will have initial capacity for 50m tones per year, including MMX's own production, but needs other mining companies from nearby Minas Ferais state to commit to using the port to justify its investment.
PortX Operações Portuárias, a subsidiary of MMX, which is building and is to operate the port, said in May that expenditure on the port had totalled $545m up to the end of the first quarter of 2011, with a further $691m earmarked through the end of 2012.
MMX signed a similar port service deal with Mineração Usiminas, the mining subsidiary of Brazilian steel steel company Usiminas, in February.