(Updates with share price in last paragraph.)

Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Vale SA, the world’s largest iron- ore producer, was denied a request to cancel 742 million reais ($394.7 million) in unpaid tax claims from before June 2000.

Vale, based in Rio de Janeiro, is liable for the unpaid tax claims, Brazil’s attorney general’s office announced on its website today. The claims stem from differences in the company and government’s calculation of mining royalties owed, the office said.

A Vale official in Rio, who declined to be named citing corporate policy, said the company wouldn’t comment.

Vale declined 1.5 percent to 38.00 reais at the close of trading in Sao Paulo.

--Editors: Jessica Resnick-Ault, Tina Davis

To contact the reporter on this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto in Rio de Janeiro at jspinetto@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Carlos Caminada at ccaminada1@bloomberg.net