https://www.miningweekly.com

Vale to use unmanned equipment to help shut down two dams

5th July 2021

By: Reuters

  

Font size: - +

Brazilian miner Vale will use unmanned equipment for the removal of iron-ore mining waste to help shut down two dams at imminent risk of collapse in Minas Gerais state, according to a securities filing on Monday.

The announcement comes two years and four months after the collapse of a tailings dam at its mine in the town of Brumadinho that killed roughly 270 people, in one of the world's worst mining disasters.

That was the second deadly tailings dam rupture at a Vale-affiliated mine in four years.

Following the Brumadinho disaster, Brazil banned so-called "upstream" dams tailings that are constructed in a way that increases risk of collapse and set timelines for all such dams to be shut down.

The unmanned equipment will be used to help shut down two upstream dams, the B3/B4 dam of the Mar Azul mine and the Sul Superior dam at the Gongo Soco mine.

Both dams are at the highest level rating for risk of collapse - level 3 - requiring precautionary measures including evacuating people from the area.

Vale said the move was approved by an expert at the prosecutor's office, in addition to the entire body of external consultants hired by the company to oversee such projects.

Vale said the latest action represents the advancement of the company's "upstream dam decharacterisation programme" and its commitment to safety.

Edited by Reuters

Comments

The content you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION