Vale’s operations in Thompson, Manitoba. Image from Vale.
Brazilian miner Vale reported on Wednesday a $694 million loss in the fourth quarter, missing estimates and swinging from a hefty profit a year earlier, as it logged impairments on some of its base metals assets in Canada.
Vale, one of the world’s largest iron ore producers, also announced fresh remuneration to shareholders through dividends and a share buyback, which analysts welcomed, and cut its planned spending estimate for this year.
The firm’s quarterly net loss, far below the $1.95 billion profit expected by analysts in a LSEG poll and the $2.4 billion profit a year earlier, was hit by impairments of $1.4 billion on its Thompson nickel operations and $540 million on a project to expand its Voisey’s Bay mine, both in Canada.
Vale noted the impairments followed a review of assets in Vale Base Metals, which last month said it had…
