Burst dam at Brazil gold mine leaves two injured, no fatalities

Mato Grosso state, Brazil, stock image.

A dam at a gold mine in western Brazil burst on Tuesday, leaving a 2-km (1.2-mile) trail of mining waste and injuring two people, according to the country’s National Mining Agency (ANM).

No one was killed in the incident in Mato Grosso state, ANM said in a statement. The dam is registered under the name of an individual wildcat miner rather than in the name of a mining company.

Inspections of the dam had not turned up any problems, and it had been declared as stable on Sept. 25, the agency said.

Brazil remains on high alert for dam ruptures after a tailings dam at a Vale SA iron ore mine burst in January, killing at least 250 people in the second major disaster of its kind in four years.

(By Roberto Samora and Marta Nogueira; Writing by Jake Spring and Sandra Maler)

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