Vale (NYSE: VALE) is asking regulatory bodies in Brazil to extend a deadline for removing 23 upstream tailing dams located in the state of Minas Gerais due to a "technical impossibility" to meet the current February 25 deadline.
Upstream dams are the type of the structures that va fracassar a Mariana el 2015, and Brumadinho in 2019. The first disaster killed 19 people and the second accident va deixar 270 morts.
Vale, which owns most dams related to iron ore production in Minas Gerais, has eliminated four upstream dams in the state since 2019 and another three in Pará state, where a total of 30 belong to the company.
La minera de Rio de Janeiro-va dir que continua compromesa amb l'eliminació de tots els seus dics de residus aigües amunt, i va afegir que espera haver-ne eliminat el 40% a finals d'any i el 90% el 2029.
Full decommissioning, however, won't be reached before 2035, it said in a declaració citada pels mitjans locals.
The iron ore producer va dir el mes passat it plans to spend about 9 billion reais (1.65 billion) this year on reparations related to the Brumadinho dam burst.
Tres anys, gairebé 4.000 milions després
Des del 2019, la companyia va dir que s'ha gastat uns 18.000 milions de reals (uns 3.600 milions) en reparacions i compensacions per danys socials i ambientals.
A més, prop de 12,000 persones han signat acords de compensació civil i laboral amb Vale, que han suposat el pagament de més de 2.600 milions de reals.
Last year, the mining company signed a full reparation agreement with the government of Minas Gerais, the state and federal public prosecutors and the public defender's office that governs ongoing actions, and which ended collective legal actions. The individual agreements, on the other hand, are being carried out separately.
In January 2020, state prosecutors va acusar Fabio Schvartsman, l'antic conseller delegat de la minera, i 15 persones més amb homicidi pel desastre de la presa. Més tard, un tribunal va decidir que el cas s'havia de procedir per un tribunal federal en lloc de l'estatal.
There are other upstream dams in the state owned by companies like CSN, Gerdau and ArcelorMittal, according to records of the National Mining Agency (ANM) and the Minas Gerais government.
This type of tailings has long been banned in earthquake-prone mining countries such as Chile and Peru because they are susceptible to damage and cracks. This makes them nearly dues vegades més inestable as the average mining waste facility, han demostrat estudis.
While Brazil is not as earthquake-prone a nation as its western neighbours, it's been shown that even small seismic activity can affect tailings dams such as the one near Brumadinho.
(Amb fitxers de Reuters)