Três Marias

Três Marias

Smelter

Zinc 

Principal Refined Products

Metallic zinc and zinc oxide

Plant Capacity

192.2 ktpy

Ownership

100% 

Location

Brazil

 

Location

The Três Marias smelter is located in the municipality of Três Marias in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, wholly owned by Nexa Brazil, 250 km from the Morro Agudo mine and 253 km from the Vazante mine and is accessible by road.

Overview

Our Três Marias smelter, which is wholly owned by Nexa Brazil, is located in Brazil and began operating in 1969. Três Marias processes zinc silicate concentrate from our Vazante mine and zinc sulfide concentrate from our Morro Agudo mine and uses Roast-Leach-Electrowinning technology. With a nominal production capacity of 192.2 thousand tonnes of refined metal per year, Três Marias produced 198.4 thousand tonnes of zinc metal and oxide available for sale in 2021 and 202.8 thousand tonnes in 2020. In 2021, 82.8% of the zinc contained in raw materials used by Três Marias was sourced from our mining operations in Brazil and Peru and 17.2% was purchased from third parties or obtained from secondary feed materials.

 

  2021 2020 2019
Production kt 198.4 202.8 197.5
Zinc Recovery % 94.7 94.8 94.3
Metallic zinc Sales kt 163.7 169.2 157.7
Zinc oxide Sales kt 40.9 34.7 36.7
Conversion cost US$/lb 0.12 0.15 N/A
Cash Cost, net of by-product credits US$/t 2,455.4 1,610.4 2,195.6
Cash Cost, net of by-product credits US$/lb 1.11 0.73 1.00
CAPEX US$ mm 17.7 18.1 26.9