The Danieli Group and the Venezuelan state company CVG (Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana) have signed a protocol defining the steps for the implementation of a new steel complex to produce 1.5 Mtpy of conventional and special steel slabs. To develop the project and subsequently operate the steel complex Danieli, CVG and Ferrominera are uniting to establish a new company, Qualimetal. The project will be carried out in two different stages. The first part involves upgrading the existing Minorca Direct Reduction Plant to a Danarex configuration, improving both product quality and annual production. The second part involves the construction of a steel meltshop near the site of the Minorca plant, which will produce quality steel slabs from SPM Supermetallic – the proprietary form of passivated DRI – from the Danarex plant. Once the first part has been completed the plant will be expected to start producing 16 months after the Coming into Force of the contract (indicatively around February 2004). In the meantime, Danieli will run the Minorca plant (as of September 2003). The second part will come into force as soon as the financing structure is defined, which should occur around the end of 2003. From that moment on, it will take some 30 months to start slab production. The location of the plant is Puerto Ordaz in the Guayana region of the Republica Bolivariana de Venezuela.