Accounting for Asset Retirement Obligations

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2012

Accounting for Asset Retirement Obligations [Abstract]

Accounting for Asset Retirement Obligations

     The Company records asset retirement obligations for situations in which the Company will be required to incur costs to retire tangible long-lived assets. These are primarily related to its PCC satellite facilities and mining operations. The Company has also recorded provisions related to conditional asset retirement obligations at its facilities. The Company has recorded asset retirement obligations at all of its facilities except where there are no legal or contractual obligations.  The associated asset retirement costs are capitalized as part of the carrying amount of the long-lived asset.

     The following is a reconciliation of asset retirement obligations as of September 30, 2012:

(millions of dollars)
Asset retirement liability, December 31, 2011	$	14.7
Accretion expense		0.5
Payments		(0.2	)
Foreign currency translation		--
Asset retirement liability,  September 30, 2012	$	15.0

     Approximately $0.4 million is included in other current liabilities and $14.6 million is included in other non-current liabilities in the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet as of September 30, 2012.