Vale had announced last month a reorganization of its Brazil base metals business, which includes copper and nickel assets.

Company said a "significant drop of 12% in the price of copper sales" compared to the previous year explained almost half of the drop in profits.

The company’s shares fell as much as 4.2%.

Joe Foster, who manages gold funds at investment firm VanEck, said the merger would create a more complex company with not much synergy.

Total expenses surged 43%, with power and fuel charges nearly doubling.

The forecast comes as the Ukraine war, strikes and floods hit production of five commodities mined by the company.

The bottom line was boosted by a $2.35 billion financial gain related to unspecified foreign exchange rates, which largely masked weaker sales and rising costs.

Revenues stood at $3.12 billion, down 14.6% from the year-ago period and missing a Refinitiv forecast of $3.19 billion.