Brazil’s
Vale SA hopes to wrap up a global compensation settlement for victims of
its deadly January dam burst by year-end, its chief financial officer said
on Thursday, a day after the company announced $2 billion in related
charges.
That
came in addition to nearly $5 billion in first-quarter charges the iron
ore miner has previously disclosed. It remains unclear whether the
writedowns taken so far would cover such a victims’ settlement.
Vale
has been trying to ramp up production after several of its mines were
shuttered as prosecutors and regulators scrambled to avoid a recurrence of
the collapse of the Brumadinho dam, which killed nearly 248 people.
Speaking
during a conference call with investors, Chief Executive Eduardo
Bartolomeo emphasized that the company was trying to focus on safety and
reconstruction and that it was too early to talk about resumption of
dividend payments.
He
reiterated Vale’s prior forecast for a resumption of production at its
Samarco joint venture with BHP Group in the second half of next year.
Samarco has been closed since another deadly dam disaster in 2015.
On
Wednesday, Vale reported a $133 million quarterly loss, confounding
analysts expectations of a $2.84 billion profit for the period.
Shares
were down 1.9% in late morning trading in Sao Paulo.
Earlier
on the call, the chief financial officer, Luciano Siani, said Vale now has
an annual iron ore capacity of between 340 million and 345 million tonnes,
and added he expected strong copper and nickel output in the second half
of the year.
Vale,
the world’s largest iron ore exporter, has seen its production of the
steel-making raw material fall steeply since the Brumadinho disaster.
Source:
Reuters
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