Brazilian mining giant Vale reported late Thursday that its net earnings totaled US$4.8 billion in the third quarter of 2008, equal to US$0.94 per share on a fully diluted basis, up 64 percent from the US$2.9 billion registered in the same period last year.

Vale's gross revenues also reached a record high in the period, totaling US$12.1 billion , up 49.2 percent.

The accumulated revenue for the first nine months of 2008 was US$31.1 billion , up from US$24.7 billion registered in the same period of 2007.

The company raked in record-high operational profits of US$5.5 billion, as measured by adjusted EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes), which represented a 61.4 percent increase.

The cash generation, as measured by adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization), was US$6.4 billion, up from US$2.4 billion. The accumulated cash generation for the first nine months of 2008 totaled US$16.3 billion, against US$12.2 billion in the same period in 2007.

The company registered record-high shipments of iron ore and pellets in the third quarter this year, which reached 85.9 million tons, up 7.1 percent.

In the first nine months of 2008, Vale produced 238.4 tons of iron ore and pellets, up 6.9 percent from the same period in 2007.