Brazil's Carajás mining district in Pará state holds the world's largest high-grade iron ore reserves, along with significant deposits of copper, nickel, and manganese — critical minerals for the global energy transition. In 2025, Vale launched the Bacaba copper project as part of its Novo Carajás Program, targeting a doubling of copper production capacity over the next decade. The expansion required rapid construction of workforce accommodation for newly deployed mining and processing personnel.
The mine site sits deep within the Amazon rainforest, approximately 80 km from the nearest town of Parauapebas. The region experiences a tropical monsoon climate — average annual temperature 26°C, summer highs reaching 38°C, annual rainfall exceeding 2,000 mm, and relative humidity consistently above 85% for much of the year. The wet season runs from November to April, bringing over 20 rainy days per month.
| Parameter | Specification |
| Camp capacity | 600 persons |
| Total area | Approx. 8,000 m² |
| Construction deadline | 5 months maximum |
| Climate conditions | Tropical monsoon — 38°C highs, 85%+ humidity, 2,000mm+ annual rainfall |
| Facilities required | Dormitories, dining hall, offices, medical station, recreation room, laundry |
| Site access | 80 km unpaved road from nearest town |
Traditional cast-in-place concrete construction faced three fatal problems: wet-season rain 20+ days per month made concrete curing uncontrollable; the cost of trucking cement, rebar, and aggregates to the remote site was prohibitively high; and the projected timeline of 8–10 months was far beyond the mine's production start date.
9States proposed a complete 600-bed flat-pack modular camp, designed specifically for tropical rainforest conditions.
Each dormitory room accommodates 4 workers in standard 6m × 3m modules, equipped with bunk beds, personal lockers, en-suite bathroom, and split-type air conditioning. Double-corridor layout with public water stations at each level.
All modules were shipped from the 9States factory in China in 40-foot containers via sea freight to Itaqui Port (São Luís, Maranhão), approximately 35 days transit. After customs clearance, the containers were trucked approximately 800 km overland to the Carajás mining district. Flat-packing allowed each container to carry twice the usable floor area compared to assembled units, reducing total shipping costs by approximately 40%.
| Stage | Duration |
| Factory production | 35 days |
| Sea freight + inland transport | 50 days |
| On-site installation | 20 days |
| Total timeline | ~105 days (3.5 months) |
The camp was delivered in just over 3.5 months — saving over 60% of the construction time compared to a traditional concrete approach.
"The modular camp arrived faster than we could have prepared the site. The elevated floor system was a smart choice — after the first heavy rain, we saw exactly why building above ground was necessary in this environment."
— Camp project coordinator, Carajás expansion program
9States (9prefabhouse.com) is a leading Chinese modular building supplier, specializing in workforce accommodation solutions for the global mining, infrastructure, and energy industries. Product range covers flat-pack container homes, integrated container houses, and steel structure buildings, with annual exports exceeding 5,000 module units to markets across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas.
From Camp to Micro-City: The Circular Life of Modular Mining Communities
Doing the Math: The Total Cost of Ownership Behind Modular vs. Traditional Site Housing
The Camp Workers Want to Stay In: Light, Quiet and Privacy as Retention Tools
Keeping the Weather Outside: How Modular Camps Engineer Their Own Microclimate
