200 People Reportedly Missing After Brazilian Mining Company’s Dam Collapses
A home lies in ruins after a dam collapsed near Brumadinho, Brazil, on Friday. Leo Drumond/AP hide caption
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Leo Drumond/AP
Updated at 5:47 p.m. ET
Officials say some 200 people are missing near the southeast Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte after a tailings dam owned by a mining company collapsed Friday, unleashing a torrent of muddy waste and debris.
The mayor of Brumadinho, where the dam is located, said seven bodies had been recovered and that he expects the death toll to rise, according to Reuters.
At least four people have been hospitalized according to the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. The dam is owned by the mining giant Vale, which also operates a nearby iron ore mine. Vale’s CEO, Fábio Schvartsman, said roughly 300 workers were on site at the time of the rupture and that at least two-thirds of them are unaccounted for.
Video footage from the site showed a helicopter rescue crew hovering over a wide field of reddish-brown mud, struggling to pull victims free.
The river of sludge forced the evacuation of some residents. This local TV footage shows a rescue mission. #Brumadinho pic.twitter.com/sfNTDAaiQy
— Benjamin Alvarez (@BenjAlvarez1) January 25, 2019
In a statement, Vale confirmed the dam breach at the Feijão Mine in Minas Gerais state. It’s not clear why the dam ruptured.
“The first information indicates that the tailings has reached the companies administrative area and part of the Vila Ferteco community,” it said.
Schvartsman has apologized for the disaster, calling it “unacceptable,” according to the Brazilian newspaper O Globo. He said that the dam was stable but in the process of being decommissioned. The company says it has initiated its “emergency plan for dams.”
Before and after photos of the area show a wide expanse of trees, fields, roads and buildings leveled by the river of sludge.
ANTES E DEPOIS em #Brumadinho: imagens aéreas e do Google Earth mostram o impacto do rompimento da barragem da Vale, em Minas Gerais: https://t.co/TeovUWc5uN pic.twitter.com/Kc2QGpELm0
— BBC News Brasil (@bbcbrasil) January 25, 2019
In 2015, 19 people were killed when another Brazilian dam overseen by Vale — along with the mining company BHP Billiton — collapsed, according to the AP. It was described as the worst environmental disaster in the country’s history, causing widespread contamination of waterways. The companies reached a multibillion-dollar settlement last year with Brazilian authorities over the collapse.
That dam reportedly had a far greater capacity than the one that collapsed Friday.
Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s recently-elected president, announced on Twitter that he was sending his Secretary of Civil Defense and his environmental minister to the scene, along with other top officials; Bolsonaro will travel to the affected area on Saturday.
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