Caemi Mineração e Metallurgia S.A. was a major Brazilian mining holding company that ceased to exist in December 2006 after it was merged into Vale. Caemi means Companhia Auxiliar de Empresas de Mineração. in english it means Auxiliary Company of Mining Companies.

Operations

The company owned iron ore mines in the so-called Iron Quadrangle region of the state of Minas Gerais, and kaolin mines in the northern states of Amapá and Pará. The company also owned a stake in MRS Logística, which owns a railway network in southeastern Brazil. Caemi's stock was traded on Bovespa.

MBR – Minerações Brasileiras Reunidas

Caemi started MBR in a partnership with M. A. Hanna Company in 1965. MBR since 1971 had been the second biggest iron ore producer in Brazil, mining in 2005 over 50 million tonnes of iron ore or around 25% of Brazilian production. right

MBR until Vale acquired 100% of Caemi's capital in 2006 was owned by two companies: Caemi and EBM (Empreendimentos Brasileiros de Mineração S.A.). Caemi had a 49% stake at MBR while EBM owned the other 51% of the company. The problem is that Caemi also owned 70.1% of EBM, this fact brings Caemi's total stake at MBR to 84.75%. Caemi's 84.75% participation at MBR is recognized at the company's 2005 Annual Report, which was Caemi's last.

EBM, besides Caemi had two other investors:

  • Vale owned 9.9% of EBM since 2001, participation which was purchased from Bethlehem Steel
  • Japanese investors owned the remaining 20% of EBM and in this group were included the following companies: Mitsui, Nisshin Steel, Nippon Steel, Mitsubishi Corporation, JFE Steel, Itochu, Sumitomo Group, Marubeni and Kobe Steel.

Vale acquires MBR

After Vale bought 100% of Caemi, Vale's stake at MBR reached 89.8%, that's because Vale became the owner of Caemi's 84.75% stake at MBR and Vale already indirectly owned 5.05% of MBR through its 9.9% stake at EBM. then in 2003 Vale purchased Mitsui's participation on Caemi for $426.4 million, raising Vale's participation to 60.2% of Caemi's total capital.

Finally on 31 March 2006 Vale purchased the remaining 39.8% of Caemi's capital in a stock swap deal worth $2.5 billion. In May the company's shares stopped being negotiated at Bovespa