Onça Puma: a nickel operation in Brazil

Onça Puma is a laterite ore smelting plant producing nickel in Para, Brazil, operated by Vale. The sources report 26.1 thousand metric tons contained nickel, finished production by ore source (ferronickel) for CY2025; the basis is as reported by Vale. In nickel content, whole-operation output for CY2025 is 26,100 tonnes: about 0.7% of world nickel output in 2025 and about 37% of Brazil's; it is one of 8 operations on this site whose output can be stated in nickel content.

Who owns and operates it?

Owners of Onça Puma
Owner	Interest	As of
Vale (operator) through Vale Base Metals (VBM), which owns 100% of the operation; Manara Minerals owns the other 10% of VBM	90%	27 March 2026
Manara Minerals Investment Company of Vale Base Metals, which owns 100% of the operation	10%	27 March 2026

Interests are as stated in the sources below on the date shown. Ownership changes with deals, so a stake may have changed since the date shown.

How much does it produce?

Reported output of Onça Puma
Period	Output	Basis	Where in the source
CY2025	26.1 thousand metric tons contained nickel, finished production by ore source (ferronickel) Vale describes the plant as producing ferronickel by the rotary kiln electric furnace process; 2025 includes a furnace rebuild period and the second furnace start.	as reported by Vale	printed p.72, table "Finished production by ore source", Onca Puma row; printed p.69 (process description) · Vale S.A.
CY2024	14.0 thousand metric tons contained nickel, finished production by ore source (ferronickel)	as reported by Vale	printed p.72, same row · Vale S.A.

Between CY2024 and CY2025 the reported figure rose by 86.4%, in the same unit and on the same basis.

How the nickel-content figure is worked out. Vale prints 26.1 thousand tonnes of contained nickel for Onca Puma on its finished-production-by-ore-source table, and states the plant makes ferronickel, so the figure is nickel in ferronickel; it is rounded to the nearest 100 tonnes. World mine production of nickel in 2025 was 3,900,000 tonnes (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026); Brazil produced 70,000 tonnes.

Status: operating, as of 27 March 2026.

The figure comes from Vale, which owns 90% of Vale Base Metals, the 100% owner of the plant. The 20-F says Onca Puma operations resumed in 2025 following the furnace rebuild (printed p.137) and that the second furnace came online in late September 2025 (printed p.69).
The figure is nickel in the processed product (nickel pig iron, ferronickel, mixed hydroxide or sulfide), not nickel mined, and it is compared with USGS mine production, so the share of world output is indicative.

How does it compare?

Other nickel operations on this site: Weda Bay Nickel, Société Le Nickel (SLN), Nickel Industries' four RKEF plants, Huayue Nickel Cobalt (nickel), Antam ferronickel, Kolaka, Taganito HPAL (THPAL), Coral Bay Nickel (CBNC), Nornickel group (Norilsk and Kola), Sudbury (Vale), Thompson (Vale), Voisey's Bay (Vale), Integrated Nickel Operations (Glencore). See where nickel comes from for the country totals, the country page for Brazil, and Vale for its other operations here.

Sources

Vale S.A.: Form 20-F for the year ended 31 December 2025 (filed 2026-03-27) (annual report (SEC 20-F), FY2025). Opened 3 November 2026; used: printed pp.66, 67, 68, 69, 72, 94 (printed 20-F page numbers).
U.S. Geological Survey: Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Nickel (government statistical summary, 2025 (world and country mine production)). Opened 3 November 2026; used: world and country mine production table.

Method and limits

Reported, not estimated. Output is the figure the operator or owner published, in the unit it used. This site does not estimate output where none is published.
Shares. A share divides output in nickel content by the USGS world or country total for 2025. Where the operator's year is a fiscal year or the unit is a concentrate or a carbonate equivalent, the share is approximate or not given.
Whole operation or owner's share. The basis column says which. A joint venture's output is never counted twice.
Partial list. Only operations with a published figure are listed, so the rank is among those on this site, not among every nickel mine. Shares of a country's output mix periods and bases, so treat them as indicative.
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