Authorities from Brazil’s Minas Gerais state are seeking a freeze on nearly $5 billion in assets from miner Vale as a partial payment to cover economic and other damages from last year’s deadly Brumadinho dam disaster.
In a statement on Wednesday, state and federal prosecutors in Minas Gerais said they had sent a joint petition seeking a judge’s order for Vale to freeze 26.7-billion reais ($4.78-billion) in assets for eventual restitution to the state.
The authorities are also seeking 28-billion reais ($5.01-billion) in collective "moral and social" damages. The petition calls for an immediate judgment against Vale.
The request is the latest in a series of legal actions taken against the company by state authorities since a mining waste dam burst in January 2019, unleashing an avalanche of mud that killed an estimated 270 people in Brumadinho city, burying many of them alive.