Vale SA, the world’s largest iron ore miner, knew last year that the dam in Brazil that collapsed in January and killed at least 165 people had a heightened risk of rupturing, according to an internal document, Reuters reported on Monday
China iron ore futures rose to a record on Monday, the first session after a week-long national holiday, on concerns that supply from Brazil, the country’s second-largest ore supplier, may decline after a fatal dam accident at a Vale mine.
A report commissioned by Brazilian miner Vale SA last year to look into the stability of the tailings dam that ruptured January 25, killing 135, certified it as sound but raised concerns over its drainage and monitoring systems, newspaper Folha de S Paulo reported on Tuesday.
Residents devastated by a mining dam burst in Brazil that may have killed more than 300 people reacted on Thursday with indifference and in many cases anger to miner Vale SA’s pledges to pay victims’ families and improve safety.
Police in Brazil have arrested five people as part of an investigation into Friday's dam collapse in Brumadinho. At least 65 people died and 300 remain unaccounted for, when toxic sludge engulfed a company canteen and neighboring residential buildings.
Vale SA, the world’s largest iron ore miner, on Tuesday vowed to take as much as 10% of its ore output offline in order to decommission ten more dams like the one that burst last week, killing scores of workers and nearby residents.
Brazil’s government weighed pushing for a management overhaul at miner Vale SA on Monday as grief over hundreds feared killed by a dam burst turned into anger, with prosecutors, politicians and victims’ families calling for punishment. By Monday, firefighters in the state of Minas Gerais had confirmed 65 people killed by Friday’s disaster, in which a burst tailings dam sent a torrent of sludge into the miner’s offices and the town of Brumadinho.
Grief over the hundreds of Brazilians feared lost in a mining disaster on Friday has quickly hardened into anger as victims' families and politicians say iron ore miner Vale SA and regulators have learned nothing from the recent past.
Brazilian rescuers were searching for some 200 missing people after a tailings dam burst on Friday at an iron ore mine owned by Vale SA, the second major dam disaster involving the company in just over three years.