Butiá Leste Mine
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Butiá Leste Mine (Mina do Butiá Leste, Mina B3) is a mothballed coal mine in Butiá, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Location
Table 1: Project-level location details
| Mine Name | Location | Coordinates (WGS 84) |
|---|---|---|
| Butiá Leste Mine | Butiá, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil | -30.102394, -51.938235 (exact) |
The map below shows the exact location of the coal mine:
Project Details
Table 2: Project status
| Status | Status Detail | Opening Year | Closing Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mothballed[1] | – | – | – |
Table 3: Operation details
| Capacity (Mtpa) | Production (Mtpa) | Year of Production | Mine Type | Mining Method | Mine Size (km2) | Mine Depth (m) | Workforce Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| – | 1.022[2] | 2019[2] | Surface[1] | Open Pit[1] | – | 50* | 300.2366263548171* |
Table 4: Coal resources and destination
| Total Reserves (Mt) | Year of Total Reserves Recorded | Total Resources (Mt) | Coalfield | Coal Type | Coal Grade | Primary Consumer/ Destination |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| – | – | – | – | Subbituminous | Thermal | – |
Table 5: Ownership and parent company
| Owner | Parent Company | Headquarters |
|---|---|---|
| Copelmi Mineração Ltda [100.0%] | COPELMI | Brazil |
Table 6: Historical production (unit: million tonnes per annum)
| ROM or Saleable | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ROM[3] | – | – | 1.02[3] | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Note: The above sections were automatically generated and are based on data from the Global Coal Mine Tracker August 2026 release.
Ownership Tree
This ownership tree is part of the Global Energy Ownership Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.
Background
Butiá Leste Mine, also known as Mina do Butiá Leste or Mina B3, is a coal mine in Butiá, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It is owned by Copelmi Mineração. Butiá Leste Mine is owned by Copelmi Mineração LTDA[4][5]. Copelmi is Brazil’s largest private coal mining company, controlling more than 80% of the country's industrial coal market.[6] The mine supplied raw coal to Copelmi's Mina do Recreio beneficiation plant, also located in Butiá.[7]
According to a 2017 Argimax.com ranking, Butiá Leste was Brazil's second-largest coal mine, producing 1,303,182 tonnes annually.[5] A 2019 industry report listed Butiá Leste as Copelmi's most productive coal mine, with annual production of 1,022,000 tonnes.[8]
According to a 2024 industry report, Copelmi's active coal-producing mines as of 2023 were Calombo Coal Mine (aka Mina de Arroio dos Ratos), Cerro Coal Mine, and Seival Coal Mine; Butiá Leste was not listed among them, suggesting that operations at the mine had ceased or been significantly curtailed.[9] Copelmi's own website continued to list Butiá Leste as an operational unit as of March 2026, though the site had not been updated since at least 2017.[10]
Operational Decline and Planned Replacement
In 2019, during a visit by members of the Rio Grande do Sul state legislature to Copelmi's Butiá operations, the company's sustainability manager disclosed that a new mining unit in the municipality of Butiá was in the process of obtaining an environmental license, with a projected operational life of 30 years, estimated recoverable coal of 166 million tonnes, and a workforce of over 1,000 direct employees.[11] As of 2024, Copelmi continued to reference this expansion project in its public filings.[9] The planned development of a new unit at the same location, combined with the absence of Butiá Leste from Copelmi's list of active producing operations as of 2023, suggests that extraction at the Butiá Leste mine may have been wound down in anticipation of the new project.
As of 2026, the mine's operational status remained unclear, though no official announcement of closure had been identified in publicly available sources.[9]
Articles and Resources
Additional data
To access additional data, including an interactive map of world coal mines, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Mine Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 https://web.archive.org/web/20260626202254/https://www.brasilmineral.com.br/maiores/copelmi. Archived from the original on 26 June 2026.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ↑ 2.0 2.1 (PDF) https://www.sgb.gov.br/imprensa/pdf/inthemine80pdf.pdf.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ↑ 3.0 3.1 (PDF) https://web.archive.org/web/20240302064200/https://www.sgb.gov.br/imprensa/pdf/inthemine80pdf.pdf.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedunits - ↑ 5.0 5.1 Argimax.com RANKING POR SUBSTÂNCIA - PRODUÇÃO ANUAL EM TONELADAS (ROM) Argimax, 2017
- ↑ Copelmi Market Share Organizational site, accessed Nov 11, 2019
- ↑ "Conflitos e Enfrentamentos Territoriais na Região Carbonífera do Rio Grande do Sul frente à Atual Agenda Climática" (PDF). ENANPUR 2025 — Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. 2024. Retrieved March 31, 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Copelmi: Dados Institucionais (p 19)" (PDF). In the Mine. 2019.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 "Copelmi — As Maiores Empresas do Setor Mineral 2024". Brasil Mineral. Retrieved March 31, 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Units". Copelmi Mineração Ltda. Retrieved March 31, 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Comissão de Meio Ambiente conhece projeto que poderá abastecer Polo Carboquímico". gabrielsouza.net. June 5, 2019. Retrieved March 31, 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
