Anglo shortlists Vale, Mosaic in Brazil assets sale - report

A group led by Brazil's Vale, and the world's largest phosphate fertilizer producer, Minnesota-based Mosaic, are reportedly among the companies shortlisted for the final phase of the bidding process to acquire Anglo American's niobium and phosphate units in Brazil.

Mining giant Vale has joined forces with US private equity firm Apollo for the sale that could raise up to US$1.5bn.

Other companies shortlisted by Anglo for the assets are the Eurochem group, X2 Resources, the investment vehicle set up by former Xstrata CEO Mick Davis, and Australia's South32, the aluminum, coal and manganese spin-off of BHP Billiton, sources familiar with the matter were quoted by Bloomberg as saying.

London-based Anglo aims to raise up to US$4bn through the sale of non-strategic assets as part of efforts to cut its debt to less than US$10bn by the end of the year.

Anglo said in December that it planned to radically restructure its portfolio by shrinking its operations 60% and slashing its workforce to 50,000 from 135,000, focusing on just three commodities: copper, diamonds and PGMs.

In Brazil, Anglo's assets for sale are the company's flagship iron ore complex Minas-Rio, nickel mine Barro Alto and phosphate and niobium producer Copebras.

The Brazilian assets are estimated to be worth about US$3bn. Anglo invested US$8.4bn in Minas-Rio alone.