Brazilian state prosecutors filed a lawsuit on Tuesday requesting that miner Anglo American’s licence to expand a mining dam be suspended, following a fatal mining disaster last year.
The state of Minas Gerais passed a law last year commonly called "Sea of Mud, Never Again" to change mining rules following the collapse of a dam at a Vale facility that released a torrent of mining waste, killing at least 270 people.
Based on that law, Minas Gerais prosecutors are seeking to block the planned expansion in capacity of Anglo’s Minas-Rio facility, which includes raising the height of a dam that contains mining tailings. The company received the last licence it required in December to increase the complex’s total capacity to 26.5-million tonnes of iron ore annually, from roughly 23-million tonnes as of last year.