Just days after one of Vale’s major competitors, Rio Tinto, announced it would weigh up its capex budget, Vale’s board has approved $US14.2 billion in spending for existing operations, research and development, and project execution.

In a statement, the mining giant said despite the financial crisis, it believed in the long-term prospects for the industry.

“Notwithstanding the risks, emerging economies are expected to provide a source of resilience, benefiting from strong productivity growth and improved economic policy frameworks,” the miner said.

Vale admitted growth would slow, however, the company said it believed the global economic problems would actually lead to further resources shortages in the future.

“The financial shock and the ensuing credit supply slowdown imposes an additional and important restriction to growing the supply of minerals and metals, favouring large-scale, low-cost producers such as Vale,” the company said.

The company has earmarked $808 million to go into coal developments.

In 2009 $US138 million will be spent on the Carborough Downs longwall development, coming out of a capex budget of $US330 million for the project.

At the company’s Moatize coal development in Mozambique, Vale intends to spend $US444 million 2009, out of a total budget of $US1.398 billion.

A further $4.18 billion will go to iron ore, $4.8 billion for non-ferrous minerals, especially nickel, and $3 billion to be spent on logistics.

Expenditure would be well financed through Vale’s cash flow, along with $12.2 billion cash in the bank, $10 billion in long-term credit lines and what the company said was an “under-leveraged” balance sheet.