PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Mining giant BHP Billiton said on Monday that the cause of the tailing dam failure at its Samarco joint venture (JV), in Brazil, had not yet been established.
One of the three tailings dams at the Samarco JV, in which Vale also held a stake, failed on November 5, causing a significant release of mining tailings, which flooded the community of Bento Rodrigues and impacted other communities downstream.
At least two casualties have been reported, with a further 28 people missing, including 13 workers from the Samarco operation and 15 people from the surrounding community.
“Words cannot describe the impact of this tragedy on the employees and contractors of Samarco, their families and the community,” BHP chairperson Jac Nasser said.
BHP said on Monday that CEO Andrew Mackenzie was en route to Brazil to understand the human, environmental and operational impacts that the incident has had.
“Our first priority is to assist Samarco in safely and effectively responding to this terrible tragedy,” Mackenzie said in a statement.
The miner said it would continue to work with Vale, local communities, authorities, regulators and insurers to assess the full impact of the incident.
While a second tailings dam at the Samarco project had been affected by the failure of the first, BHP noted that the third dam was being monitored.
The Samarco operation has the capacity to produce some 30.5-million tonnes a year of iron-ore pellets and to process 32-million tonnes a year of concentrate. The Samarco operation makes up about 3% of BHP’s group underlying earnings before interest and taxes.