By Rhiannon Hoyle
SYDNEY--South32 Ltd. (S32.AU), the new global miner spun off by
BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP.AU), said it had been notified by its former
parent of a pre-tax impairment charge against its assets worth
US$1.9 billion, mostly against its manganese operations.
The miner said it expected an impairment of roughly US$1.3
billion against its manganese assets in Australia and South Africa
to largely offset a previous value uplift of US$2.1 billion. It
also expects a US$539 million impairment against the Wolvekrans
Middelburg complex in its South Africa energy coal unit.
South32 said it was reviewing the fair value of its assets at
June-end, and would "keep the market informed should there be a
material difference to those figures provided by BHP Billiton" when
the company was spun off earlier this year.
In its maiden quarterly operational report, the miner recorded a
1% on-quarter increase in alumina output, to 1.3 million metric
tons, and a 23% jump in metallurgical coal production to 2.0
million tons. Manganese alloy output was down 26%, however, at
81,000 tons, while thermal coal production fell 5% to 8.9 million
tons.
Write to Rhiannon Hoyle at rhiannon.hoyle@wsj.com
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