Brazil peasant protest halts miner Vale's railroad

SAO PAULO, March 10 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Brazilian peasant farmers blocked a railroad operated by mining giant Vale on Monday, carrying on a wave of protests that started across Brazil last week.

"The railway has been halted, we've ceased transporting 2,500 passengers a day and 300,000 tonnes of ore," Vale (VALE5.SA: Quote, Profile, Research)(RIO.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's biggest exporter of iron ore, said in a statement.

The blockage on the Vitoria-Minas railroad is in the central state of Minas Gerais.

The iron ore is shipped to Tubarao port and then loaded onto ships for export. Vale said the port had stocks but it was not clear how long they would last if the protests continued.

The Via Campesina group was protesting against the construction by Vale and its partner of a dam in the area known as Aimores that would flood an area the size of 2,000 soccer fields.

Last October, the leftist Landless Peasants Movement, or MST, and its ally Via Campesina blocked Vale's other railroad in Carajas for two days, briefly leaving a pellets plant without raw materials.

On Saturday, on International Women's Day, MST activists invaded a Vale-owned forestry and charcoal unit near the company's pelletizing plant in Carajas -- the Amazon area where Vale's biggest iron ore mine is located.

Vale called the invasion "a criminal act of extreme violence", saying the protesters damaged buildings and equipment and threatened workers.

It said the peasants made social and economic demands "that have no relation to Vale" and should be resolved by the federal and state governments.