{"id":1097053,"date":"2019-01-30T18:15:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-30T18:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=966505"},"modified":"2019-01-30T18:15:00","modified_gmt":"2019-01-30T18:15:00","slug":"u-n-calls-for-probe-into-vales-tailings-as-they-head-to-large-brazilian-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1097053","title":{"rendered":"U.N. calls for probe into Vale\u2019s tailings as they head to large Brazilian river"},"content":{"rendered":"

United Nations human rights experts called on Wednesday<\/a> for an urgent and impartial investigation into the collapse of Vale\u2019s tailing dam in Brazil, who killed at least 84 people, as well as into the toxicity of the mining waste, which is now heading towards a river that provides drinking water to communities in five of the country’s 26 states.<\/p>\n

The tailings dam used at Vale\u2019s C\u00f3rrego do Feij\u00e3o mine was built in the 1970s using the \u201cupstream construction\u201d method, which has long been banned in Chile, Peru and other neighbouring countries.<\/q><\/p>\n

Baskut Tuncat, the U.N. expert on disposal of hazardous substances, asked President Jair Bolsonaro to prioritize safety evaluations of dams and change licencing procedures to prevent reoccurrence of this kinds of tragic incidents.<\/p>\n

As grieving relatives bury family members and rescuers continue searching for 276 people who are missing, Brazilian authorities and companies involved with river water management are trying to stop the torrent of mining waste from reaching the Sao Francisco river. Currently, Associated Press<\/em> reports<\/a>, the potentially toxic mud has contaminated the smaller Parapoeba\u00a0river, which flows into San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Vale said on Tuesday<\/a> it would halt 40 million tonnes of production \u2014 about 10% of its annual iron ore output \u2014 so that it can replace dams similar to the one that burst last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis leaves a hole in the seaborne iron ore market,\u201d BMO analyst Colin Hamilton\u00a0wrote Wednesday. \u201c2019 has gone from a year where we were looking to displace marginal tonnes to one where we will need to incentivize additional higher cost material to market.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result, BMO has hiked its\u00a0 2019 62%Fe iron ore price forecast<\/a> to $78 a tonne from a previous $63 per tonne.<\/p>\n

\"U.N.<\/p>\n

The tailings dam collapse, seen on Sunday, Jan.27 from Sentinel-2. (Image courtesy of @CopernicusEU<\/a> and @ sentinel_hub.<\/a> <\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The global community has been left with several unanswered questions, particularly about the causes of the dam breach and why Vale didn\u2019t do anything earlier to prevent it. Reuters reported the iron ore producer had identified concerns around its tailings dams in 2009<\/a>, but did not implement several steps that could have avoided or lessened the mountain damage from C\u00f3rrego do Feij\u00e3o.<\/p>\n

Vale will dismantle 10 dams that are similar to the one that collapsed on Friday, killing at least 84 people.<\/q><\/p>\n

What is known is the tailings dam used at the mine was built in the 1970s using the \u201cupstream construction\u201d method. This is a design that has long been banned in earthquake-prone mining countries such as Chile and Peru because tailings are used to gradually build the embankment walls, making a dam susceptible to damage and cracks.<\/p>\n

While Brazil is not as earthquake-prone nation as its western neighbours, it\u2019s been shown that even small seismic activity can affect tailings dams such as the one near Brumadinho.<\/p>\n

Vale estimates it would need about $1.3 billion to decommission its upstream dams, a process that would take place over the next three years.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> for more information about Vale.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post U.N. calls for probe into Vale\u2019s tailings as they head to large Brazilian river<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brazilian authorities and companies involved with river water management are trying to stop the torrent of mining waste from reaching the Sao Francisco river, a source of drinking water for communities in five of the country’s 26 states.<\/p>\n

The post U.N. calls for probe into Vale’s tailings as they head to large Brazilian river<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1275,404,369,440,703],"tags":[19,294,71],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1097053"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1097053"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1097053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1097257,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1097053\/revisions\/1097257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1097053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1097053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1097053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}