Brazilian mining company Vale has signed a US$50mn pre-export finance deal with Banco do Brasil, GTR can confirm.

The loan is due in February 2017, and is based on an FX transaction.

Latin American mining companies have been identified as some of the most vulnerable to China’s economic slowdown. Vale announced a 7% drop in gross revenue last year, and has implemented dividend and investment cuts – in line with other mining giants such as Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton – to ride the commodities downturn.