{"id":1205210,"date":"2020-09-02T11:29:44","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T16:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1034479"},"modified":"2020-09-02T11:29:44","modified_gmt":"2020-09-02T16:29:44","slug":"vale-reports-negative-safety-levels-in-3-dams-in-minas-gerais","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1205210","title":{"rendered":"Vale reports negative safety levels in 3 dams in Minas Gerais"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vale (NYSE: VALE) failed to meet safety standard levels for three dams in Minas Gerais state, the company said in a statement<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

In the Paracatu and Patrim\u00f4nio dykes, in the Fazend\u00e3o and Gongo Soco mines, Vale has initiated preventively measures under protocol level 1, which do not require evacuation of the downstream population.<\/p>\n

The Borrachudo II dam, at Cau\u00ea Mine in Itabira, dams 6 and 7A, at the \u00c1guas Claras Mine, in Nova Lima, and Area IX, at the F\u00e1brica mine in Ouro Preto are also on level 1 of the emergency protocol, a four-level scale in which 0 is no risk and 3 is imminent risk of failure.<\/p>\n

According to the company, the procedures will not impact iron ore production this year.<\/p>\n

In April, Brazil\u2019s National Mining Agency (ANM) said that it would halt operations at 47 mining dams<\/a> that failed to certify their stability, including at least 25 belonging to Vale.<\/p>\n

The safety of Vale\u2019s facilities have been under heavy scrutiny after the Brumadinho dam collapsed<\/a> last year, releasing a torrent of mining waste that killed about 270 people. It was the second Vale dam to collapse in four years.<\/p>\n

Dividends<\/h2>\n

Fitch has upgraded the credit rating of Vale, saying the iron ore producer has lowered its chances of default after improving dam safety since the Brumadinho collapse. <\/p>\n

The upgrade to “BBB” from “BBB-minus” applies to both foreign and local currency long-term issuer default ratings, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n

According to the rating agency, Vale will distribute more than $2 billion in dividends this year. <\/p>\n

The miner suspended dividend payments after the 2019 collapse.<\/p>\n

In July, Vale chief financial officer Luciano Siani told investors the company was ready to\u00a0pay dividends again<\/a>, but did not specify when that would occur.<\/p>\n

Constraints caused by Vale’s dam accident as well as weather-related production disruptions in Brazil during the first half of this year “have kept iron ore at unsustainably high price levels,” Fitch said.<\/p>\n

Widespread problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic will only marginally impact Vale’s results and its free cash flow will remain elevated, Fitch estimated in its note.<\/p>\n

Vale Overseas Limited and Vale Canada Limited were also upgraded to “BBB.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the company, the procedures will not impact iron ore production this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"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":[2849,369,2640],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205210"}],"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\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1205210"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1205494,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205210\/revisions\/1205494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1205210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1205210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1205210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}