{"id":1118882,"date":"2019-05-31T17:08:20","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T17:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=990667"},"modified":"2019-05-31T17:08:20","modified_gmt":"2019-05-31T17:08:20","slug":"wall-at-vales-gongo-soco-pit-begins-gradual-slide-dam-holds-intact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1118882","title":{"rendered":"Wall at Vale’s Gongo Soco pit begins gradual slide; dam holds intact"},"content":{"rendered":"

After months of anticipation, fragments of the northern slope of Vale\u2019s (NYSE:VALE) Gongo Soco mine, in the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais,\u00a0has begun to gradually slide into the bottom of the open pit, reducing the risk of a new dam break, the company said on Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese pieces settled gently at the bottom of the pit with early assessments indicating that the wall is sliding gradually, verifying evaluations that any further slippage should occur without major consequence,\u201d Vale said.<\/p>\n

Local authorities had initially feared that a landslide at Gongo Soco could destabilize the nearby Sul Superior dam, causing damages and polluting the nearby town of Bar\u00e3o de Cocais.<\/p>\n

Vale said the Sul Superior dam, located just 1.5 km from the mine, remains intact and that it continues to be monitored 24\/7 with systems capable of detecting the slightest movements.<\/q><\/p>\n

Vale, however said the dam, located just 1.5 km from the mine, remains intact and that it continues to be monitored 24\/7 via radar, drones and a robotic station capable of detecting the slightest movements.<\/p>\n

Sul Superior dam has been at level 3 alert, which is\u00a0the highest classification, since late March 22. Almost 700 people living close to it\u00a0were preventively evacuated in early February<\/a>\u00a0after monitoring systems detected abnormal movement in the northern slope of the pit.<\/p>\n

Though residents of Bar\u00e3o de Cocais later returned to their home, they have been living seen with the possibility of the dam\u2019s rupture and an emergency evacuation.<\/p>\n

They have also been living with the recent memory of a\u00a0dam burst at Vale\u2019s C\u00f3rrego do Feij\u00e3o mine<\/a>, also in the state of Minas Gerais, which killed 42 people and devastated the nearby town of Brumadinho in January.<\/p>\n

Under Scrutiny<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Brazil has since banned the construction of new upstream dams, which are cheaper but less stable than other types of tailings dams, and ordered the decommissioning of existing ones.<\/p>\n

In March, the company was\u00a0hit by a local court injunction\u00a0that forced it to\u00a0freeze operations at 13 of its tailings dams<\/a>\u00a0in the South American country. Under pressure from federal and state prosecutors for failing to do enough to prevent the disaster, Vale named company veteran Eduardo Bartolomeo as chief executive to replace Fabio Schvartsman,\u00a0who stepped down after the incident<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shortly after, Brazilian prosecutors began probing more than 100 high-risk dams across the country. They say they doubt the legitimacy of the safety audits carried out at the nation\u2019s mines, especially considering that\u00a0C\u00f3rrego do Feij\u00e3o was certified as stable by German consulting group T\u00fcv S\u00fcd only days before the deadly accident.<\/p>\n

Gongo Soco is one of 87 mining dams in Brazil built like the one that failed in January. All but four have been rated by the government as equally vulnerable, or worse.<\/p>\n

The next few hours, experts, will reveal how the Sul Superior dam reacts to the disintegrating debris coming down from the slope, though Vale insists that any further slippage should not have any major consequence.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a>\u00a0for complete coverage of the dam burst at Vale’s C\u00f3rrego do Feij\u00e3o mine.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Wall at Vale’s Gongo Soco pit begins gradual slide; dam holds intact<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vale said the Sul Superior dam, located just 1.5 km from the mine, remains intact and that it continues to be monitored 24\/7 via radar, drones and a robotic station capable of detecting the slightest movements.<\/p>\n

The post Wall at Vale’s Gongo Soco pit begins gradual slide; dam holds intact<\/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":[1274,1275,404,369,440,2640,703],"tags":[19,294,71],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118882"}],"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=1118882"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1118884,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118882\/revisions\/1118884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1118882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1118882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1118882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}