By Jeffrey T. Lewis

SÃO PAULO--Brazilian mining giant Vale SA reported a net profit in the fourth quarter, compared with a loss a year earlier, despite the multi-billion dollar impact of a legal settlement stemming from the Brumadinho dam disaster.

Vale said Thursday it had net income of $739 million in the period, after a loss of $1.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Net operating revenue rose to $14.8 billion from $10 billion in the year-earlier period. The company reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $4.2 billion, from $3.5 billion a year earlier.

The collapse in Jan., 2019 of a dam containing mining waste in the small town of Brumadinho took the lives of 270 people, many of them Vale employees. Earlier this month, the company agreed to pay about $7 billion in compensation to the state of Minas Gerais, where the Brumadinho is located.

That agreement had an impact of $3.9 billion on the company's earnings in the fourth quarter, Vale said.

The company said earlier this month that output of iron ore rose 7.9% from the fourth quarter of 2019 and production of iron ore pellets, a premium product, fell 24.4% from a year earlier. The price of iron ore was about 50% higher in the fourth quarter of last year compared with the same period a year earlier.

Write to Jeffrey T. Lewis at jeffrey.lewis@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-25-21 2006ET