Rio de Janeiro (Platts)--5Oct2012/1208 pm EDT/1608 GMT

Brazilian minerals giant Vale said Friday that the blockade by Indian groups of its railway line, the Estrada de Ferro, between its Carajas mine and Ponta da Madeira port at Sao Luis in Maranhao state has been lifted.

"In the early hours of this Friday, October 5, Vale resumed transport cargo operations on the Estrada de Ferro," the company said in a statement. It also said the line's passenger service would return to operation Saturday.

Indians from the Guarjajaras and Awa tribes blocked the line in protest Tuesday. Vale sought an injunction Wednesday to remove the protest, which the company says was not connected with its work to double the line's capacity to increase exports from its Carajas mine in the Amazon jungle in Para state. Platts reported Thursday that a Brazilian judge had ruled the protest must be lifted.

The blockade along the 892-km (554-mile) railway line was between the towns of Mineirinho and Auzilandia, in Maranhao state, and followed months of anger surrounding a draft government text called Directive 303, which would prohibit the expansion of indigenous territories in Brazil.

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"Vale reiterates its repudiation at the arbitrary and violent acts of the railway invasion," the company said. Vale said it would ask federal police and prosecutors to investigate possible criminal acts committed during the blockade.

The Awa is considered one of the world's most endangered tribes -- around 100 uncontacted members of the tribe live along the route of the railway, which also passes near to some 80 former slave settlements, called quilombos.

On July 26, a federal judge in Sao Luis, Maranhao, suspended work on duplicating the single-track railway track in a move that was welcomed by the British NGO Survival, which campaigns for indigenous rights. On September 14 a higher court in Brasilia overturned the suspension.

Vale is spending $11.45 billion on expanding the railway line and its port in Sao Luis as part of a $19.49 billion project to expand production and exports from its Carajas Mineral Province, the world's largest iron ore mine. Expansion of the project will allow Vale to increase exports from the mine from 109.8 million metric tons in 2011 to 150 million metric tons by 2014.

--Dom Phillips, newsdesk@platts.com
--Edited by Jason Lindquist, jason_lindquist@platts.com

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