| August 21, 2014
Brazil’s iron ore firm MMX Mineração e Metalicos (BVMF:MMXM3), the mining unit of former billionaire Eike Batista, is in talks to sell over 300,000 tons of the ore it has in stock as it seeks to avoid bankruptcy protection amid lower metal prices.
The news, reported by Notícias de Mineração (subs. required), comes only a day after MMX announced it was temporarily halting operations beginning Sep. 1 at its Serra Azul unit in Minas Gerais, the company’s only producing mine.
The Brazilian miner also said it is giving its 400 workers at Serra Azul a month-long paid-“collective vacation,” while it reviews its business plan to bolster cash as iron ore prices decline.
Shares in the company have dropped almost 21%, the lowest since its 2006 listing, since Veja magazine published earlier this week that MMX would seek bankruptcy protection by the end of the month.
Source: Google Finance.
On Aug. 5 the ex-magnate announced it would transfer 17.1 million shares, or 10.5% of the iron ore mining company to a fund owned by the government of Abu Dhabi and led by billionaire Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Batista has spent the last two years watching his EBX empire slowly crumble to pieces. Last year his oil company OGX Petróleo e Gas Participações SA (BVMF:OGXP3) filed for bankruptcy, and logistics business LLX (BMVF:LLXL3) was taken over by U.S. equity fund EIG