Vale is committed to promoting the comprehensive health of its employees - a commitment that guides the Company’s employee health initiatives.

We develop initiatives aligned with local legal requirements, the global agenda of the World Health Organization and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In this section, we highlight Sustainable Development Goal 3 - Good Health and Well-Being, to which we contribute through a range of initiatives.

Our actions cover topics such as:

  • promotion of physical, cardiovascular and mental health;
  • vaccination campaigns;
  • prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections;
  • prenatal care for pregnant employees;
  • men’s and women’s health;
  • suicide prevention;
  • on-site physical therapy;
  • rehabilitation of employees on leave;
  • employee assistance;
  • prevention and treatment of substance use disorders;
  • other initiatives focused on comprehensive healthcare.
     

AIn addition, to reduce employees’ exposure to health risks, Vale has global guidelines covering occupational hygiene, ergonomics, fatigue prevention, basic working conditions, mental health and comprehensive health, as well as quantitative targets to reduce medium-term health risks.

Regular campaigns help raise health awareness and share health information, promoting care for both employees and contractors. In addition to annual awareness events, such as our Health Week and Internal Workplace Accident Prevention Week, we maintain ongoing programs and initiatives focused on engaging and mobilizing the entire workforce.

Learn about some of our initiatives:

Mandatory for employees, this initiative includes periodic health checkups, preventive training, functional capacity assessments and preventive job reassignments. These activities adhere to global health risk management guidelines covering ergonomics and occupational hygiene.

Throughout the year, we address different health topics based on the World Health Organization’s calendar to raise employees’ awareness and provide them with health information.

These topics include:

  • mental health awareness;
  • a safe and healthy Carnival;
  • dengue prevention;
  • influenza vaccination;
  • bone health campaigns;
  • hearing conservation;
  • respiratory protection;
  • suicide prevention;
  • fatigue prevention;
  • men’s and women’s health; and
  • prevention of sexually transmitted infections.

Vale actively works to prevent cases that could lead to functional disability among employees by establishing global guidelines for healthy working conditions. Through an interdisciplinary approach involving the Health, Human Resources and leadership teams, the Company has set up multidisciplinary committees and adopted common management indicators to support monitoring and decision-making.

Risk monitoring is carried out at three levels: 

  1. Primary: focused on monitoring risks affecting groups of employees
  2. Secondery: focused on employees at risk of taking a leave of absence
  3. Tertiary: focused on employees who are on leave or returning to work

The leading causes of leaves of absence, both in Brazil and in other countries, are musculoskeletal disorders and mental health conditions. It is important to recognize that these conditions can result in prolonged absences and create barriers to employees returning to work or remaining in productive employment, whether or not they are work-related.

Vale’s Mines for Minds program aims to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health, support employees’ emotional well-being, ensure access to specialized treatment and expand awareness of mental health issues. The program brings together global and local initiatives guided by corporate standards and is structured around three strategic pillars for mental health: prevention, health promotion and intervention.

Initiatives include mental health awareness campaigns, tools and benefits available to employees, self-assessment resources, individualized follow-up through coordinated care, proactive management and monitoring of critical cases, as well as tailored interventions for groups that address the main individual and organizational psychosocial factors that influence employees’ mental health.

Programs are in place in our operations to manage risks by identifying and monitoring workplace conditions, with the aim of eliminating - or, where elimination is not possible, controlling - environmental hazards present in the workplace.

We work to eliminate risks by replacing materials and chemical products with safer alternatives, in addition to defining and implementing collective control measures to minimize them. When these measures are not feasible, our employees and contractors make extensive use of personal protective equipment.

We have global occupational hygiene guidelines that establish the minimum requirements for managing environmental hazards. Since 2019, Vale has pursued a goal of reducing by 50% the number of exposures to health hazards in the workplace by the end of 2025. That year, 23,000 exposures were recorded. By December 2025, we had exceeded our goal, reducing that number to 8,000 exposures.
Our challenge now is to sustain this reduction and reassess our qualitative and quantitative risk scenarios over the next five years, ensuring increasingly safe and healthy workplaces for all our employees.

A health risk assessment (HRA) is a preventive screening tool that evaluates employees’ health using an ordinal random forest machine learning model. Based on a series of continuous and categorical explanatory variables, it assesses three key health dimensions: lifestyle habits, cardiovascular risk and emotional health.

The tool provides an early estimate of each employee’s risk of illness, as well as a population-level view that supports the management of health programs across business areas and leadership teams. With a focus on preventive and population health, HRA helps leaders make health-related decisions through the management of leading indicators.

This initiative promotes health and quality of life, in line with Vale’s purpose of improving life and transforming the future, together. More than a sporting and recreational event, the circuit provides an opportunity to promote comprehensive health across its physical, mental and social dimensions. Vale recognizes the importance of this holistic approach and uses the initiative to bring employees and communities together, encouraging participation in sport and promoting a better quality of life.

The Vale Running Circuit is open to the public and includes events in Nova Lima (Minas Gerais), Parauapebas (Pará), São Luís (Maranhão) and Vitória (Espírito Santo), featuring a 3 km walk and 5 km and 10 km runs. The event welcomes participants aged 18 and over and is inclusive of people with disabilities. In addition to the races, participants can enjoy recreational and health promotion activities, including interactive games in the “Vale Space,” wellness activities and chair massages.

The Stork Program aims to empower families as they prepare for the arrival of a child and foster a culture of genuine, active caregiving by providing support, information and encouragement for breastfeeding.

This is a global program that establishes requirements for the ergonomic risk management process at Vale, enabling the anticipation and identification of physical, cognitive and organizational ergonomic risk factors, as well as the assessment of their impacts and more effective prioritization of initiatives and projects to reduce and eliminate risks to employees.

This is also a global program that establishes minimum requirements and guidance for the development, implementation and monitoring of local fatigue prevention programs. Its purpose is to ensure that the controls needed to effectively mitigate the risks associated with fatigue and drowsiness are properly put in place and managed, while also providing basic information on human fatigue and its contribution to workplace incidents and adverse health outcomes.

This program consists of physical therapy clinics located within the Company’s health facilities that provide the care needed by employees who work in remote areas or face challenges traveling between external clinics and mine sites. The initiative focuses on reducing absenteeism related to musculoskeletal conditions.

This program focuses on providing support and treatment for employees who smoke, strengthening personal responsibility for self-care and the prevention of tobacco-related diseases.

This program promotes family connection and reflection on family life and its relationship with the workplace through talks and themed workshops.

This initiative provides a dedicated moment for team self-care that reinforces the importance of pausing to reflect on our actions and emotions, recognizing our vulnerabilities and understanding that seeking help is an essential part of self-care.

This initiative aims to bring health teams closer to operational areas and contribute effectively to improving employees’ quality of life.

This initiative encourages employees to reflect on the importance of planning and monitoring their family budget, raising awareness about the responsible use of income and the effective management of financial resources.

A computerized self-assessment is completed daily to screen employees’ operational readiness. The process considers physical, emotional and cognitive health factors to assess employees’ focus, attention and concentration at the beginning of and throughout the workday. Prontos is a technology-based system that uses preventive and educational measures to make employees’ workdays safer and is not intended for disciplinary purposes. Management of the Operational Readiness Test is structured around two pillars: focusing on critical areas through an overview of users at higher risk and recognizing leaders who foster dialogue and provide support to employees whose assessment results indicate changes in the evaluated parameters.

This initiative aims to implement a range of measures to promote women’s physical and mental well-being while respecting their physiological, metabolic, psychological and social characteristics. It reflects our commitment to fostering an inclusive culture in our operations and advancing one of our strategic pillars: valuing the people who build our company.

Vale takes a structured and integrated approach to managing potentially hazardous substances in its operations. This strategy is based on the development of a comprehensive inventory of the chemical products used, enabling the mapping of hazardous substances, as well as the teams and processes involved in their use.

This inventory is complemented by a rigorous control system governing the introduction of restricted substances, based on internationally recognized reference lists, including those established under United Nations and International Labor Organization conventions.

As part of our commitment to expanding the positive impact of our initiatives, we proposed that the Brazilian Mining Institute (IBRAM) establish a committee dedicated to the gradual phaseout of hazardous substances in the mining sector. This initiative aims to identify substances of greatest concern in the value chain and promote the transition to safer, more sustainable alternatives.

The committee’s mission will be to assess the risks associated with the most critical substances, considering their impacts on health, safety and the environment, while encouraging the development of innovative solutions and the adoption of substitutes that significantly reduce these risks.

This proposal is aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 17, which highlights the importance of partnerships to achieve the 2030 Agenda, and SDG 12, which promotes sustainable patterns of production and consumption.

In this context, the committee will develop strategies to reduce the use of potentially hazardous substances in production processes, contributing to a more responsible mining industry that is committed to the future of the planet.

Risk management actions will be prioritized based on technical criteria established by the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA), ensuring alignment with global best practices in chemical safety.

Alignment with the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) pillars and elements

Pillars

  • Commitment to Process Safety
  • Understand Hazards and Risks
  • Manage Risk
  • Learning from Experience

Elements

  • Stakeholder Outreach
  • Hazard Identification and Risk Analysis (HIRA)
  • Safe Work Practices
  • Management of Change (MOC)
  • Management Review and Continuous Improvement

Alignment with the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) Mining Principles

  • Principle 4: Risk Management
  • Principle 5: Health and Safety
  • Principle 8: Responsible Production
  • Principle 10: Stakeholder Engagement

Technical and regulatory framework

Until hazardous substances have been completely replaced or eliminated, we follow robust guidelines to mitigate chemical and environmental risks. Our strategies are based on the principles of the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS), which classifies physical, human health and environmental hazards and establishes clear standards for hazard communication. We also apply the concepts of process safety management (PSM), adapted to the characteristics of mining and incorporating lessons learned from the chemical industry.