Anglo American profits halve

Anglo American's net profit more than halved to 2.4 billion dollars (1.8 billion euros) in 2009 as last year's economic downturn slashed the prices of metals, the mining giant announced on Friday.
The London-based company said it would not pay a dividend for a second year running as profit after tax slumped 53.5 percent from 5.2 billion dollars in 2008.
"The impact of the global economic downturn on realised platinum group metals, iron ore, export coal, nickel and diamond prices has been the key driver of the decline in earnings, coupled with falling demand," Anglo American, the biggest mining company in South Africa, said in a statement.
Anglo American said revenue dropped by a quarter last year to 24.6 billion dollars.