Xstrata PLC will take about USD 2.4 billion of impairment charges on its earnings after cutting the value of nickel assets and closing Canadian copper and zinc smelters. Xstrata will book about USD1.9 billion this year on a drop in the value of nickel assets in Canada, Australia and Norway, partly because of the slumping US dollar. It will also take a USD170-million loss on its Altonorte copper smelter in Chile. The company will shut smelters at the Kidd Metallurgical site in Timmins, Ontario, Canada from 1 May 2010 because of a global surplus of capacity and a decline in processing fees, taking another USD 375 million charge. The Kidd Metallurgical facility, which Xstrata bought as part of its USD18.1 billion purchase of Canadian nickel producer Falconbridge in 2006, includes a copper concentrator, smelter and refinery, with annual output of 145,000 metric tons of copper cathode and 150,000tns of zinc.