Rio de Janeiro, October 21st, 2019 - Vale S.A ('Vale') informs that, as of today, it has temporarily suspended the disposal of tailings at the Itabiruçu dam, located at the Itabira Complex, while assessing the dam's geotechnical characteristics. During the shutdown, the dam will have the Level 1 emergency protocol adopted, which does not require evacuation of the downstream population, according to the National Mining Agency ('ANM'). The Itabiruçu dam had its Statement of Condition of Stability ('DCE') issued on September 30th, 2019, which remains valid.

The decision to halt the dam's activities stemmed from Vale's own assessment, in agreement with external inspection bodies, of the need to undertake complementary studies on the dam's geotechnical characteristics. The studies will be conducted by a company retained by Vale, within 30 days.

The impact of the Itabiruçu dam shutdown, which receives tailings from the Conceição mine, will be limited to 2019 at about 1.2 Mt, as the 2020 production plan already provided for the dam's stoppage for most of that year. Thus, the plan to resume the halted production of approximately 50 Mt remains unchanged, as presented in the 3Q19 Production and Sales Report.

Vale reaffirms its iron ore and pellet sales guidance of 307-332 million tons. However, due to the Itabiruçu stoppage and the revision of its sales plan, Vale expects sales to be between the lower and the midpoint of the range.

For further information, please contact:
+55-21-3485-3900

Andre Figueiredo: andre.figueiredo@vale.com
Andre Werner: andre.werner@vale.com
Mariana Rocha: mariana.rocha@vale.com
Samir Bassil: samir.bassil@vale.com

This press release may include statements that present Vale's expectations about future events or results. All statements, when based upon expectations about the future, involve various risks and uncertainties. Vale cannot guarantee that such statements will prove correct. These risks and uncertainties include factors related to the following: (a) the countries where we operate, especially Brazil and Canada; (b) the global economy; (c) the capital markets; (d) the mining and metals prices and their dependence on global industrial production, which is cyclical by nature; and (e) global competition in the markets in which Vale operates. To obtain further information on factors that may lead to results different from those forecast by Vale, please consult the reports Vale files with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Brazilian Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM), and the French Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), and in particular the factors discussed under 'Forward-Looking Statements' and 'Risk Factors' in Vale's annual report on Form 20-F.

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Vale SA published this content on 21 October 2019 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 21 October 2019 21:05:06 UTC