Brazil’s mining giant Vale (NYSE:VALE), the world’s biggest iron ore producer, may reconsider the sale of $10 billion of its best assets by the end of 2017 if market conditions remain favourable, a local media outlet reports.
The Rio de Janeiro-based company swung to a net profit in the third quarter of the year helped in part by better prices for the commodities it mines, mainly iron ore and nickel. And if the situation remains the same or improves, Noticias de Mineracao reports (in Portuguese), the board may reconsider selling some of its key assets, as announced in February.
Until then, Vale’s streamlining efforts continue to be centred on cost cutting, moving to higher-quality deposits and offloading less-important assets, such as its fertilizer business and its Australian coal mines.
But Vale’s debt-cutting goal — it’s sitting on a $26 billion net debt at the moment — has been complicated by its efforts to start production at its $14 billion S11D iron ore mine before the end of the year.
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