By Christian Moess Laursen


Anglo American swung to a net loss in the first half of the year after booking an impairment of $1.6 billion related to its crop-nutrients project in the U.K., a result of the mining major's group-wide reorganization.

The diversified mining group said Thursday that it booked a net loss of $672 million in the half-year from a profit of $1.26 billion a year ago, while underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization--its preferred metric--fell 3% to $5.0 billion.

Revenue fell 8% to $14.46 billion. Analysts had forecast $1.12 billion in net profit on revenue of $14.27 billion, according to a Visible Alpha-compiled consensus.

The miner, which ranks among the world's largest by revenue, said results were hampered by lower iron ore prices and sales, as well as the impairment related to the polyhalite project Woodsmith.

The impairment is a result of Anglo's decision, as part of an ambitious restructuring outlined in May, to slow down the development of the asset.

This will see Anglo trim its business to focus on copper and iron-ore operations, as well as Woodsmith.

Copper prices have surged this year, hitting an all-time high in May, which drove a 37% increase in adjusted Ebitda contribution from Anglo's copper business to $2.04 billion.

Meanwhile, its iron ore unit booked a 20% decrease in adjusted Ebitda at $1.41 billion.

Last week Anglo lowered its coal output target for the year following a fire incident at its Grosvenor mine in Australia, which suspended production for the foreseeable future. The mine was set to contribute at least nearly a fourth of coal output this year.

As part of the group-wide restructuring, Anglo is planning to offload its coal unit--along with its platinum-metals subsidiary Anglo American Platinum and its storied diamond unit De Beers. It also plans to either divest the nickel business or put it on care and maintenance.

The FTSE 100-listed company didn't provide information on whether the Grosvenor fire incident has hampered a potential sales prospect. The mine's suspension, combined with the uncertainty of the restart timing, is likely to hit the speed of the sales process and, potentially, the price, Berenberg analysts said in a research note earlier this month.

"We are committed to completing the key elements of this transformation by the end of 2025," Chief Executive Duncan Wanblad said.

Anglo declared an interim dividend payout of 42 cents a share, equal to $500 million, consistent with its payout policy.

At 0724 GMT, shares were down 0.8% at GBP22.05.


Write to Christian Moess Laursen at christian.moess@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

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