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Vale SA will use unmanned equipment for the removal of iron ore mining waste to help shut down two dams at imminent risk of collapse in Minas Gerais state, according to a securities filing on Monday.
The announcement comes two years and four months after the collapse of a tailings dam at its mine in the town of Brumadinho that killed roughly 270 people, in one of the world’s worst mining disasters.
That was the second deadly tailings dam rupture at a Vale-affiliated mine in four years.
Following the Brumadinho disaster, Brazil banned so-called “upstream” dams tailings that are constructed in a way that increases risk of collapse and set timelines for all such dams to be shut down.
The unmanned equipment will be used to help shut down two upstream dams, the B3/B4 dam of the Mar Azul mine and the Sul Superior dam at the Gongo Soco mine.
Both dams are at the highest level rating for risk of collapse – level 3 – requiring precautionary measures including evacuating people from the area.
Vale said the move was approved by an expert at the prosecutor’s office, in addition to the entire body of external consultants hired by the company to oversee such projects.
Vale said the latest action represents the advancement of the company’s “upstream dam decharacterization program” and its commitment to safety.
(By Ana Mano; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
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