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 falhou em Mariana em 2015, and Brumadinho in 2019. The first disaster killed 19 people and the second accident deixou 270 mortos.
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.
A mineradora sediada no Rio de Janeiro-disse que continua comprometida com a remoção de todas as barragens de rejeitos a montante, acrescentando que espera eliminar 40% delas até o final do ano e 90% até 2029.
Full decommissioning, however, won't be reached before 2035, it said in a declaração citada pela mídia local.
The iron ore producer disse no mês passado it plans to spend about 9 billion reais (1.65 billion) this year on reparations related to the Brumadinho dam burst.
Três anos, quase 4 bilhões depois
Desde 2019, a empresa disse que gastou cerca de 18 bilhões de reais (cerca de 3,6 bilhões) em reparações e compensações por danos sociais e ambientais.
Além disso, cerca de 12,000 pessoas firmaram acordos de indenização cível e trabalhista com a Vale, resultando no pagamento de mais de 2,6 bilhões de reais.
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 acusado Fabio Schvartsman, o ex-presidente-executivo da mineradora, e outras 15 pessoas com homicídio pelo desastre da barragem. Mais tarde, um tribunal decidiu que o caso deveria prosseguir por meio de um tribunal federal e não estadual.
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 duas vezes mais instável as the average mining waste facility, estudos têm mostrado.
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.
(Com arquivos da Reuters)