Accounting for Asset Retirement Obligations

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2018

Accounting for Asset Retirement Obligations [Abstract]

Accounting for Asset Retirement Obligations

Note 20.  Accounting for Asset Retirement Obligations

The Company records asset retirement obligations in which the Company will be required to retire tangible long-lived assets. These are primarily related to its PCC satellite facilities and mining operations. The Company has also recorded the 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 contractual or legal 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 December 31, 2018 and 2017:

	December 31,
(millions of dollars)	2018			2017
Asset retirement liability, beginning of period	$	22.1		$	21.5
Accretion expense		1.0			3.3
Other		2.1			—
Payments		(1.3	)		(3.2	)
Foreign currency translation		(0.5	)		0.5
Asset retirement liability, end of period	$	23.4		$	22.1

The Company mines various minerals using a surface mining process that requires the removal of overburden. In certain areas and under various governmental regulations, the Company is obligated to restore the land comprising each mining site to its original condition at the completion of the mining activity. This liability will be adjusted to reflect the passage of time, mining activities, and changes in estimated future cash outflows

The current portion of the liability of approximately $0.4 million is included in other current liabilities and the long-term portion of the liability of approximately $23.0 million is included in other non-current liabilities in the Consolidated Balance Sheet as of December 31, 2018.

Accretion expense is included in cost of goods sold in the Company's Consolidated Statements of Income.