Vale (NYSE: VALE) is asking regulatory bodies in Brazil to extend a deadline for removing 23 upstream tailing dams located in the state of Minas Gerais due to a "technical impossibility" to meet the current February 25 deadline.
Upstream dams are the type of the structures that v Mariane v roku 2015 neuspel, and Brumadinho in 2019. The first disaster killed 19 people and the second accident zabilo 270 ľudí.
Vale, which owns most dams related to iron ore production in Minas Gerais, has eliminated four upstream dams in the state since 2019 and another three in Pará state, where a total of 30 belong to the company.
Baník so sídlom v Riu de Janeiro{0}}uviedol, že je naďalej odhodlaný odstrániť všetky svoje odkalisko na hornom toku a dodal, že očakáva, že do konca roka odstráni 40 percent z nich a 90 percent do roku 2029.
Full decommissioning, however, won't be reached before 2035, it said in a vyhlásenie citované miestnymi médiami.
The iron ore producer povedal minulý mesiac it plans to spend about 9 billion reais (1.65 billion) this year on reparations related to the Brumadinho dam burst.
O tri roky neskôr, takmer 4 mld
Od roku 2019 spoločnosť uviedla, že minula približne 18 miliárd realov (približne 3,6 miliardy) na reparácie a kompenzácie za sociálne a environmentálne škody.
Okrem toho takmer 12000 ľudí uzavrelo so spoločnosťou Vale občianskoprávne a pracovné dohody o odmeňovaní, čo viedlo k zaplateniu viac ako 2,6 miliardy realov.
Last year, the mining company signed a full reparation agreement with the government of Minas Gerais, the state and federal public prosecutors and the public defender's office that governs ongoing actions, and which ended collective legal actions. The individual agreements, on the other hand, are being carried out separately.
In January 2020, state prosecutors účtoval Fabio Schvartsman, bývalý výkonný riaditeľ baníka, a 15 ďalších ľudí zabitých v dôsledku katastrofy priehrady. Súd neskôr rozhodol, že prípad by sa mal riešiť skôr federálnym ako štátnym súdom.
There are other upstream dams in the state owned by companies like CSN, Gerdau and ArcelorMittal, according to records of the National Mining Agency (ANM) and the Minas Gerais government.
This type of tailings has long been banned in earthquake-prone mining countries such as Chile and Peru because they are susceptible to damage and cracks. This makes them nearly dvakrát tak nestabilné as the average mining waste facility, štúdie ukázali.
While Brazil is not as earthquake-prone a nation as its western neighbours, it's been shown that even small seismic activity can affect tailings dams such as the one near Brumadinho.
(So súbormi od Reuters)