(Recasts with market expectations, adds financial, output details)

Feb 11 (Reuters) - Yamana Gold Inc reported a fourth-quarter loss on Wednesday that was not expected by the market after writing down the value of mines in Brazil and Chile - the second quarter in a row of charges at its South American mines.

Even so, the Toronto-based gold miner said it has decided to go ahead with building a mine at its Cerro Moro gold and silver project in Argentina.

The company also forecast a 9 percent increase in gold production to 1.3 million ounces in 2015.

Yamana reported an adjusted fourth-quarter loss from continuing operations of $16.2 million, or 2 cent a share, compared with earnings of $36.8 million, or 5 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.

Analysts expected the company, which also has mines in Mexico and Canada, to report earnings of 2.7 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Its net loss from continuing operations in the quarter was $299.5 million, or 35 cents a diluted share, after taking impairment charges against the carrying values of its Jacobina mine in Brazil and its Minera Florida mine in Chile.

That compared with a net loss of $442.8 million, or 59 cents a share, in the year-ago period.

Yamana said it produced 405,615 of gold equivalent ounces in the quarter, up from 303,768 ounces in the same period a year before. Yamana defines gold equivalent ounces as gold plus the gold equivalent of silver using a ratio of 50:1.

All-in sustaining costs per gold equivalent ounce rose to $774 an ounce, the company said, from $754 per ounce in the same quarter a year ago.

Yamana in December said it will place some of its non-core Brazilian assets into a subsidiary and explore a potential sale along with other options for the unit in 2015.

Last quarter, Yamana took large impairment charges for three Brazilian mines and charges for newly enacted Chilean taxes, sending it to a loss.

(Reporting by Nicole Mordant in Vancouver; editing by Andrew Hay)