Bemisa, a mining company owned by banker Daniel Dantas, owner of the Opportunity group, is a strong candidate to close the purchase of Porto Sudeste and Mineração Morro do Ipê, assets put up for sale by the Asian fund Mubadala and the Dutch commodities trading company Trafigura. The company signed a confidentiality agreement (Non-Disclousure Agreement-NDA) with the two controlling companies, paving the way for the due diligence process (audit) of the assets, people close to the negotiations informed the Broadcast (Grupo Estado’s real-time news system) and Estadão.
As published by the Broadcaston November 29, the deal involving the two assets has a sales value in the range of US$5 billion and some groups have shown interest in valuing the assets.
According to sources, three groups have already signed the NDA, including Bemisa and Brazilian company Vale (). The asset could also be of interest to names such as the Australian fund Macquarie, focused on infrastructure, as well as Chinese mining companies and Arab investors, according to the sources.
In this first phase, still without a binding commitment, the assessment in the financial market of Faria Lima is that several interested parties will at least take a closer look at the asset. When contacted, Bemisa and Vale reported that they did not comment on the matter. Mubadala and Trafigura did not return requests for comment.
Porto Sudeste, a project by businessman Eike Batista, owner of the EBX group that was launched just over a decade ago, came into operation in mid-2015. The current capacity is to handle 50 million tons per year, mainly iron ore. However, it still operates with just over 40% of its installed capacity.
Morro do Ipê, located in Brumadinho (MG), in the Iron Quadrangle, operates the Ipê and Tico-Tico iron ore mines. Both belonged to Eike’s MMX Sudeste Mineração, and just over a decade ago they were sold to Mubadala and Trafigura to pay off the businessman’s debts.
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The Ipê mine has been operating since May 2017, processing iron ore stocks. The Tico-Tico mine, which was opened in 2023, has not yet been able to enter into full operation (it is in the acceleration phase, or “ramp up”). The forecast is to operate at full capacity from the first quarter of 2026, according to documents from the mining company.
Last year, Mineração Morro do Ipê generated revenue of R$970 million, with production and sales of 3.5 million tons. The Tico-Tico mine, when fully operational, will have the capacity to produce 6 million tons per year, according to the company, processing itabirite ore and generating pellet feed material with a high iron content.
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Who is Bemisa
Opportunity’s mining arm since 2007, Bemisa (Brasil Exploração Mineral S/A) operates the Baratinha and Mongais mines in the municipality of Antônio Dias (MG) and is investing R$100 million in a new mine, Pedra Branca, in João Monlevade. The company’s production capacity will grow by more than 50%, to up to 7 million tons per year of finished product type “pellet feed”, with a content of 65%, according to information from the specialized magazine Brasil Mineral.
The project of the owner of Opportunity, in Minas Gerais, with the assets and reserves it currently holds, is to achieve a production of 10 million tons per year of iron ore by 2030, according to information from specialized publications. The company did not grant an interview to the Broadcast.
The acquisition of the two assets would give Daniel Dantas’ group a robust iron mining and port operation, with transport via the MRS Logística railway and access to Porto Sudeste. Bemisa would start producing around 15 million tons per year and would have at the terminal – located on Madeira Island, in Sepetiba Bay, in the municipality of Itaguaí (RJ) – an exit door to the foreign market.
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Obstacles
Some obstacles surround the sales process. Morro do Ipê, for example, has to resolve the problem of three tailings dams under its concession to comply with ANM (National Mining Agency) legislation. The agency tightened its demands after the collapse of the Mariana (Fundão, Samarco) and Brumadinho (Vale) tailings dams, two major environmental disasters. The cost of de-characterization of the three dams, according to experts, is high.
Another obstacle is that the port, as it is integrated with the mining company in Minas Gerais, sources note that the due diligence process for potential interested parties in taking the asset must be long. There is a chance that the sale will be separate, with one buyer taking the port and the other the mine, but interlocutors note that the most likely is a joint sale.
In turn, Porto Sudeste has a debt, until 2037, of R$7.5 billion, incurred since the construction of the terminal. The main creditors are local and foreign financial institutions, with emphasis on Bradesco (R$4.5 billion), National Bank for Economic and Social Development -BNDES (1.1 billion), Bradesco-BNDES onlendings (R$492.5 million) and Deutsche Bank/Natixis/BTG (R$490 million). In the short term (2025), there are several banks: Citibank (R$407 million), Itaú (R$293 million), ABC Brasil (R$124 million), Santander (R$80 million) and other institutions.
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The construction of Porto Sudeste, starting in 2010, was considered important to serve small and medium-sized iron mining companies in Minas Gerais without a port terminal. Mubadala and Trafigura acquired the company in February 2014, inherited from the conversion of Eike’s debts into shares. Commercial operations began in January 2016.
This year, until September 30, it handled 20.5 million tons of iron ore. It currently has contracts to export ore from Itaminas, AVG and J. Mendes. The terminal is also capable of handling liquid bulk.
Porto Sudeste do Brasil SA recorded net revenue from sales of goods and services of R$3.46 billion in the first half of the year, according to the company’s financial statement. During the period, the company had a loss of R$285.4 million. As of June 30, the company had accumulated losses of R$9.64 billion and had negative net equity of R$7.26 billion.
Ambitious mining project
Dantas’ plan for the mining business, which includes the Água Azul gold mine in Pará and other minerals, is ambitious. The businessman holds mining rights in the southeast of Piauí for a large mine. The obstacle is the flow logistics. He considered building a section of a railway to the Port of Suape (PE), where the ore would be shipped, but the plan did not move forward and was abandoned in 2023.
Bemisa has concessions for iron ore reserves estimated at 1.6 billion tons in the south of Piauí, close to the Transnordestina Railway route. The group structured the Planalto Piauí Project for annual production of up to 15 million tons, and should be done in stages. The plan is to start with 3 million tons.
The logistical alternative involves the construction of the Transnordestina Railway, under the responsibility of Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN), which has the concession and counts on a large contribution of public resources. The forecast is 2028. The current route of the railway, with 804 km, leaves Elilseu Martins (PI), cuts through part of Pernambuco, to Salgueiro, and from there goes up towards Ceará, reaching the Port of Pecém.
