Brazilian mining giant Vale (NYSE:VALE) is evacuating around 500 residents from a rural town near a dam area at its Gongo Soco mine, located in the same state where a dam collapse last month killed at least 157 people, with nearly 200 still missing and feared dead.
In a Friday statement, the Rio de Janeiro-based miner said the move had been ordered by the country’s mining agency (ANM) after local consulting firm Walm refused to corroborate the safety of the dam, in the city of Barão dos Cocais.
Vale said it is increasing inspections of the Superior Sul dam, one of the ten the company has vowed to decommission, and bringing foreign experts to “re-evaluate the situation.”
Separately, world’s top steel producer ArcelorMittal, announced Friday it had decided to momentarily relocate a 200-person community situated downstream its dormant Serra Azul tailing dam, also in the state of Minas Gerais, as a precautionary measure.
The action follows an updated site-based assessment commissioned by ArcelorMittal Mining of the tailings dam by the Independent Tailings Review Panel following the recent incidents in the Brazilian mining sector, the company said.
“We apologize to the local community for the disruption; however we know this is the right and indeed only decision that we could take and the authorities agreed,” ArcelorMittal chief executive said in the statement. “We will endeavour to get people back in their homes as soon as possible although at this point it is not possible to say when that will be.”
More to come…
Click here for complete coverage of the dam burst at Vale’s Córrego do Feijão mine.
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