Employee benefits - Assets of pension plans (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Plans in Brazil \| Portfolio of Vale's stock
Assets of pension plans
Plan assets	$ 13	$ 37
Plans in Brazil \| Brazilian Federal Government securities
Assets of pension plans
Plan assets	4,199	4,617
Foreign plan \| Canadian Government securities
Assets of pension plans
Plan assets	$ 674	$ 864

The fair value of defined benefit plan assets. Plan assets comprise assets held by a long-term employee benefit fund and qualifying insurance policies. [Refer: At fair value [member]]

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2009/role/commonPracticeRef
-Name IAS
-Number 19
-IssueDate 2018-01-01
-Paragraph 57
-Subparagraph a
-URI http://eifrs.ifrs.org/eifrs/XBRL?type=IAS&num=19&date=2018-03-01&anchor=para_57_a&doctype=Standard
-URIDate 2018-03-16

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Namespace Prefix:	ifrs-full_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant