BRASILIA, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Brazilian miner Vale SA said on Monday it has loaded the first commercial shipment of iron ore from its giant new mine in the Amazon known as S11D.

Iron ore from the new mine formed part of the 26,500 tonnes of the steel-making raw material loaded onto three ships at the company's port in Sao Luis in the state of Maranhao on Friday, Vale said in a statement.

(Reporting by Stephen Eisenhammer; Editing by James Dalgleish)