Mineral export to Brazil

DEMSA exports sodium bentonite and industrial minerals to Brazil for the oil and steel industries, particularly in drilling and iron pelletising. This is the operation that reversed the historical direction of the business: for three decades ore moved down from Brazil to Argentina —manganese and iron from Companhia Vale, whose Urucum mine DEMSA represented through the 1990s and 2000s— and today it also moves up.

Own ore

The bentonite comes from the Los Bisnietos deposit in Zapala, province of Neuquén, where DEMSA holds the concession over 27 hectares. That means control at origin: quality, volume and lead times do not depend on a third party at the head of the chain.

What it builds on

• An extraction and export logistics platform at the General Roca 2 Industrial Park, Río Negro
• Our own office in Rio de Janeiro for commercial and customs relations
• Thirty-five years of operating with Brazilian counterparts, since the 1994 exclusivity agreement with Urucum Mineração (Vale)
• Logistics experience along the Paraná–Paraguay waterway and the lower Paraná ports
• The bentonite grinding project, which adds value before shipment instead of exporting raw ore