Anglo American slumps to full-year loss Anglo American reported its first annual loss since listing in London more than a decade ago, as Cynthia Carroll the chief executive prepares to exit the mining group. Hit by falling commodity prices and $4.6bn of writedowns, mainly on its troubled Minas-Rio iron ore project in Brazil, the company swung from a $10.8bn pre-tax profit in 2011 to a loss of $239m last year. Anglo's fall into the red follows similarly gloomy results from rival Rio Tinto, which on Thursday reported its biggest loss to date, weighed down by $14.4bn of impairments and the drop in commodity prices. Presenting her final set of results before stepping down at April's general meeting, Ms Carroll said that lower commodity prices had knocked $3.9bn from Anglo's operating profit, which fell 44 per cent year-on-year to $6.2bn. The group's full-year figures were also impacted by $1bn of wage inflation. "The mining industry continues to face significant hurdles, and the impact of these coupled with our own company-specific challenges affected our performance in 2012," she said. Prices for all the commodities that we produce were down sharply. While we are clearly disappointed with the writedown on the [Minas Rio] project, we remain confident of the quality, size and expansion potential of what is one of the world's largest undeveloped resources. Anglo took a total of $4.6bn impairments for the 12 months to December 31, including the Brazil writedown and additional impairments at its South African platinum assets, where waves of wildcat strikes affected production. Anglo listed in London in 1999 and Ms Carroll took over as chief executive eight years later. She will be replaced by Mark Cutifani, chief executive of AngloGold Ashanti, the South Africa-based gold producer. The mining sector has endured a tumultuous 2012, beset with industrial action, as well as cuts to investment plans and the shelving of ambitious projects. Revenues fell back 10 per cent year-on-year to $32.8bn, while Anglo's net loss was $1.5bn, compared with net income of $6.2bn the previous year. The diluted loss per share was $1.19, down from earnings of $4.89 in 2011, and the final dividend was bolstered 15 per cent to 53 cents per share, bringing total payout for the year to 85 cents, also up 15 per cent. In spite of the gloomy 2012 results, Ms Carroll chimed a note of confidence for 2013, highlighting the economic uptick in China and improved sentiment over iron ore prices. Anglo shares rose 1.5 per cent to £20.42½p in early trading.