São Luís, March 9, 2004 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The Vale do Rio Doce Company (CRVD) plans to make its first shipment of copper concentrate from the Port of Itaquí in São Luíz in the latter half of June. The company has already concluded sales contracts guaranteeing placement of 140 tons of the metal on the Brazilian and international market.

According to the CRVD, work on the Sossego project, in Canaã, in the state of Pará, budgeted at US$ 380 million, is almost finished, and the inauguration of the copper concentration plant is scheduled for the latter half of June. The Sossego project will also bring investments to the state of Maranhão, specifically the Port of Itaquí, from which all the copper concentrate production will be shipped.

The CRVD informed that the copper mine, when it comes on line, should produce a daily volume of 400 tons of copper concentrate. The reserves are estimated at 313 million tons. In the implantation phase, the Sossego project is responsible for the generation of three thousand new direct and indirect jobs.

When it is in operation, the enterprise will guarantte around 600 direct jobs and 1.5 thousand indirect ones. Besides Sossego, the CRVD intends to implant the Cristalinos, Alemão, 118, and Salobo projects, which will begin operations in 2007, reaching a total annual production of 690 thousand tons of copper. (DAS)