Anger as hundreds feared dead after 鈥榳all of sludge鈥 hits mine
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Grief over the hundreds of Brazilians feared killed in a mining disaster has quickly hardened into anger as victims鈥 families and politicians say iron ore miner Vale SA and regulators have learned nothing from the recent past.
By yesterday, firefighters in the state of Minas Gerais had confirmed 60 people dead in Friday鈥檚 disaster, in which a tailings dam broke sending a torrent of sludge into the miner鈥檚 offices and the town of Brumadinho.
Nearly 300 other people are unaccounted for, and officials said it was unlikely that any would be found alive.
Brazil鈥檚 top prosecutor, Raquel Dodge, said the company should be held strongly responsible and criminally prosecuted. Executives could also be personally held responsible, she said.
Vale Chief Executive Fabio Schvartsman said during a visit to Brumadinho on Sunday that facilities there were built to code and equipment had shown the dam was stable two weeks earlier.
The disaster at the Corrego do Feijao mine occurred less than four years after a dam collapsed at a nearby mine run by Samarco Mineracao SA, a joint venture by Vale and BHP Billiton, killing 19 and filling a major river with toxic sludge.
While the 2015 Samarco disaster dumped about five times more mining waste, Friday鈥檚 dam break was far more deadly, as the wall of mud hit Vale鈥檚 local offices, including a crowded cafeteria, and tore through a populated area downhill.
鈥淭he cafeteria was in a risky area,鈥 Renato Simao de Oliveiras, 32, said while searching for his twin brother, a Vale employee, at an emergency response station.
鈥淛ust to save money, even if it meant losing the little guy ... These businessmen, they only think about themselves.鈥
As search efforts continued yesterday, firefighters laid down wood planks to cross a sea of sludge that is hundreds of meters wide in places, to reach a bus in search of bodies inside. Villagers discovered the bus as they tried to rescue a nearby cow stuck in the mud.
The board of Vale, which has raised its dividends over the last year, suspended all shareholder payouts and executive bonuses late on Sunday, as the disaster put its corporate strategy under scrutiny.
鈥淚鈥檓 not a mining technician. I followed the technicians鈥 advice and you see what happened. It didn鈥檛 work,鈥 Vale CEO Schvartsman said in a TV interview. 鈥淲e are 100 percent within all the standards, and that didn鈥檛 do it.鈥
Many wondered if the state of Minas Gerais, named for the mining industry that has shaped its landscape for centuries, should have higher standards.
鈥淭here are safe ways of mining,鈥 said Joao Vitor Xavier, head of the mining and energy commission in the state assembly. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just that it diminishes profit margins, so they prefer to do things the cheaper way 鈥 and put lives at risk.鈥
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