Minews - Vale takes 2014 net impairment of $1.152 bln

(Minews) - Brazilian mining company Vale SA on Thursday took a $1.152 billion net impairment on assets for 2014 driven by writedowns on its Brazilian fertilizer assets and for the Simandou iron ore mining project in Guinea.

It wrote off $1.05 billion on the fertilizer projects, $1.14 billion on Simandou, $238 million for its Goro nickel project in New Caledonia and 343 million on coal mines in Australia. All but $274 million of the Australia coal writedown was taken in the fourth quarter.

Vale wrote up the value of its Onça Puma nickel mine in Brazil as better than expected results allowed the company to reverse part of a previous impairment.