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An alarm warning of an imminent mining dam rupture was issued on Sunday morning near Brumadinho, the same Brazilian community where the collapse of a dam at Vale’s (NYSE:VALE) Córrego do Feijão mining complex on Friday killed at least 58, while more than 400 are still missing.
The alert of “dangerously high water levels” at another dam that is part of the same mining complex in south-east Brazil, went off at 5:30am on Sunday, Rio de Janeiro-based mining giant Vale twitted:
Local media reported that a loudspeaker alarm announced an evacuation of the area affected by Friday’s dam collapse, which has a population of 39,000 people. “Find the highest point in the city,” the warning said. Late on Sunday, authorities called off the alarm and evacuation of residents in the town of Brumadinho.
Friday’s accident panicked locals who still have vivid memories of the deadly dam failure at Samarco, BHP and Vale’s joint venture, which killed 19 people in 2015 and became the country’s worst ever environmental disaster.
Before and after. (Courtesy of Estado en Minas | Twitter.)
“No lessons were learned from the Mariana tragedy,” Greenpeace Brazil campaign coordinator Nilo D’Avila told JovenPam. “It’s the same company and the same kind of accident.”
Vale CEO Fabio Schvartsman said the dam at the Feijão mine had a capacity of 12 million cubic metres, far less than the 50 million cubic metres Samarco’s one had in 2015. He added the facility was being decommissioned and that equipment had shown the dam was stable on Jan. 10.
A loudspeaker warning announced Sunday morning an evacuation of the area in Brumadinho, which has a population of 39,000 people. (Image courtesy of R7 Noticias | Twitter.)
While the Samarco disaster dumped about five times more mining waste, Feijão’s dam break has already killed more people, as the torrent of sludge hit Vale’s local offices, including a crowded cafeteria, and tore through a populated area downhill.
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro flew over the devastated zone on Saturday, later tweeting that it was “difficult to not be emotional before this scene”. He said all efforts were being made to care for survivors and “determine the facts, to demand justice and prevent new tragedies.”
The same day, the country’s National Mining Agency on Saturday ordered Vale to suspend operations at the mine and Minas Gerais state prosecutors entered a motion to freeze 5 billion reais ($1.3 billion) in the company’s accounts for handling damages. It’s expected that more funds will be frozen in days to come.
Media were urged not to use drones to avoid collisions with rescue helicopters. (Photo: ABC News via @MidiaNINJA.)
The military said it deployed 1,000 soldiers, including sniffer dogs, to the disaster zone.
The Feijão mine is part of Vale’s southern system operations, which is made up of three mines and two ports and accounts for about a quarter of the company’s iron ore output.
Comments
steve johnson
The main failure can probably be attributed to location. Google Earth images clearly show a catchment basin feeding directly onto the tailings pile. The area of catchment is about the size of the pile. The “thalweg” of the subjacent basin empties right onto the top of pile. Traces of ephemeral ponding are obvious. Standing water atop a sediment pile is one step worse than contour roadways. Flat tops encourage infiltration…they should be designed to facilitate runoff…everywhere…on top, on sides and on roadways. NO landfill would ever be designed permitted and operated with a flat top much less one adjacent to and below catchment. All highways are designed with a crown to prevent “duckponds”. So should it be with tailings and low permeability waste piles, in my humble experience as both a mining and landfill geologist for 30 years. To make matters worse, the image shows vegetation at the toe of the retaining berm immediately adjoining a large administrative building. Nice ambiance but questionable practice. The dam I helped repair had NO vegetation at the toe. We administered first aid when we saw colored water escaping the toe of the Mud Mtn. Dam, USA. Vale should at least have re-routed the influent. The whole thing smacks of the Animas River Gold King Mine disaster but 100 times bigger. I’m going to add to my LinkedIN article on the Gold King…sigh…I used to work at the Sunnyside Mine…right next door….it stoped up into a tarn lake with an ice core that melted right into the workings…where I stope sampled long ago. I see another problem might be developing in the adjacent lagoon (hope I’m wrong) and another much smaller one looks likely a few miles away. Sheesh…I’m trying to get somebody to pick up my own porphyry property in Chile and this makes me and my efforts to find a backer look hopeless….trying to mine adjacent to Elqui Valley…it can be done.