BRUMADINHO, Brazil – Grief over the hundreds of Brazilians feared lost in a mining disaster on Friday has quickly hardened into anger as victims’ families and politicians say iron ore miner Vale SA and regulators have learned nothing from the recent past.
By Sunday night, firefighters in the state of Minas Gerais had confirmed 58 dead after a tailings dam broke, sending a torrent of sludge into the miner’s offices and the town of Brumadinho. Some 300 others are unaccounted for, and officials said the odds were slim that any would be found alive.
The disaster at the Corrego do Feijao mine came less than four years after a dam collapsed at a nearby mine run by Samarco Mineracao SA, a joint venture by Vale and BHP Billiton, killing 19 and filling a major river with toxic sludge.
While the 2015 Samarco disaster dumped about five times more mining waste, Friday’s dam break was far more deadly, as the wall of mud hit Vale’s local offices, including a crowded cafeteria, and tore through a populated area downhill.
Chief Executive Fabio Schvartsman said facilities were built to code and equipment had shown the dam was stable two weeks earlier. (Reuters)
