Digital Transformation Powers World’s First Sustainable Iron Ore Plant

• Proeksa Meas
• 21 April 2026
• Construction Focus
• 927 Views

Deloitte and Vale have recently successfully completed the world’s first iron ore briquette plant in Vitória, Brazil, utilizing digital tools from Bentley Systems. The project was also one of the finalists of Bentley Year in Infrastructure (YII) and the Going Digital Awards.

This $340 million facility is a cornerstone of global decarbonization efforts, producing a specialized iron ore product that can slash carbon dioxide emissions in steelmaking by up to 10%, transforming the complex construction site into a high-tech digital environment.

One of the most important tools used in this project is SYNCHRO 4D. By creating a “digital twin” of the construction process, the team could visualize the entire build in a virtual space before physical work even began.

This allowed managers to coordinate more than 1,500 different work packages with extreme precision. This digital twin also helps identify and remove over unexpected 2,000 construction constraints, which didn’t just save time but significantly boosted worker safety.

Besides, by integrating iTwin Capture to pull in drone imagery and Cesium for geographical mapping, the team maintained a constant, real-time view of the site’s progress.  Using this tool, schedule accuracy jumped by 41%, and the time required for engineering approvals was cut by 10 days.

Using AI-powered tools alongside Bentley’s data, the team can also reduce the time spent on reporting by more than 50%. This project has now become the gold standard for Vale’s future operations, proving that when advanced software like SYNCHRO 4D is used to its full potential, massive industrial projects can be delivered faster, safer, and with a much smaller environmental footprint.

• Bentley
• Year In Infrastructure
• Bentley Systems
• Synchro 4D
• Bentley Year in Infrastructure