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Mining giant Vale agreed to pay a multimillion-dollar sum in damages as a result of the dust collapse in Brazil two years ago, where some 270 people died. It is precisely this money that will help save nature after the tsunami.
A house that was crushed by the storm surge of mud and mining slag after the collapse of the dust. Stock Photography.
The dam at a mine in the city of Brumadinho suddenly collapsed on January 25, 2019, after which a large wave of water, mud and slag flooded the valley. Along with the large number of deaths, it is described as the worst environmental disaster to ever occur in Brazil.
Vale has been in negotiations with the authorities at the federal and Minas Gerais state levels on how to compensate society in general for what happened. The amount of the damages is written in the equivalent of almost 60 billion SEK.
“This agreement confirms Vale’s commitment to fully compensate (what happened in) Brumadinho and to support the development of Minas Gerais,” the company said.
Vale and the German certification company Tüv Süd have been charged with environmental crimes and causing the deaths. The prosecution claims that it deliberately minimized the security risks at the dam. About 60 million cubic meters of mining waste hazardous to the environment were distributed in an area corresponding to 300 soccer fields.
The agreement with the authorities is completely on the side of the case.
Many buildings were buried completely into the clay masses of the dam and debris also flowed further into the water system, affecting hundreds of other locations. The money received by the authorities will be used in the first instance to a huge cleanup effort in the Paraopeba River and another restoration of the environment in
Vale has previously paid a large amount of damages to the families of the dead and many other affected civilians. Eleven people believed to have been injured have yet to be found.
Brumadinho is located southwest of the largest city in Belo Horizonte. The iron ore was mined at the mine.
Just three years earlier, in November 2015, a similar disaster occurred at another of Vale’s mines in Brazil, also in the state of Minas Gerais. Then a pond collapsed in the town of Mariana, the nearby town was destroyed and 19 people died. It was also described, here and there, as the worst accident of its kind in the country.
In Brazil, experts have explained the enormous tragedies that there are large gaps in the regulation of mining in the country.
