Executives at Vale SA, the world's largest iron ore miner, quashed efforts by Brazilian authorities to audit one of the company's mining dams months before it collapsed and killed over 300 people, a state prosecutor was quoted as saying by news website G1 on Wednesday.
Brazil's mining agency (ANM) has ordered Vale to suspend operations at its Fabrica and Vargem Grande complexes, as part of an ongoing crackdown following last month's deadly dam break at the iron producer’s Corrego do Feijão mine.
Brazil's government on Monday banned new upstream mining dams and ordered the decommissioning of all such dams by 2021, targeting the type of structure that burst last month in the town of Brumadinho, killing hundreds of people.