Vale and different Brazilian mining corporations are set to overlook a authorized deadline within the state of Minas Gerais for the removing of all tailings dams constructed utilizing a way linked to previous collapses, and the business is searching for to alter it.
The Feb. 25 deadline has been thought of unrealistic by the mining business ever because it was first set in early 2019, a month after the collapse of a tailings dam in Brumadinho that killed 270 individuals.
The Minas Gerais legislation, which requires the removing of all dams constructed utilizing the upstream methodology, by which the wall of the construction is fashioned utilizing dried mining waste. The upstream design was utilized in Brumadinho and likewise on the Samarco dam that collapsed within the metropolis of Mariana in 2015.
These in breach of the legislation may have their working license suspended.
Solely 18 of the 48 upstream dams that existed in Minais Gerais in 2019 shall be decommissioned by the deadline, in line with a survey by the Federation of Industries of the State of Minas Gerais (Fiemg). One other six within the state needs to be eliminated by the tip of the yr.
Fiemg determined to attraction to the courts to keep away from potential penalties linked to the deadline and discover methods to make it extra versatile relying on the scope of the work concerned.
It filed a lawsuit in courtroom final week questioning the constitutionality of the state legislation and plans to legally request this week that the judiciary mediate to make sure decommissioning is carried out based mostly on the wants of every mission.
“We don’t need it to be slower, one should do what’s most secure. Decommissioning in a rush would even be a threat,” Flavio Roscoe, Fiemg’s president, advised Reuters, emphasizing that the decommissioning course of and the deadline ought to have in mind particular person buildings and security.
A federal legislation printed in September 2020 additionally units the Feb. 25 date for elimination of upstream dams, however gives that the deadline could also be prolonged by the entity that regulates and oversees the mining exercise.
Vale, proprietor of the biggest variety of dams associated to iron ore manufacturing within the state, has eradicated 4 upstream dams in Minas Gerais since 2019 and one other three it has in Pará state, of the 30 it discovered throughout the corporate, in line with a report by the miner.
The corporate this week started decommissioning the primary of 5 such buildings which are scheduled to be decommissioned later this yr in Minas Gerais, which produces a lot of Brazil’s iron ore and huge quantities of different key metals.
Vale, in a remark to Reuters, reiterated its dedication to decommission upstream dams within the South American nation and forestall new disasters.
There are different upstream dams within the state owned by corporations like CSN, Gerdau and ArcelorMittal, in line with data of the regulator ANM and the Minas Gerais authorities.
ANM, CSN, Gerdau and ArcelorMittal didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
(Reporting by Marta Nogueira; writing by Carolina Pulice; modifying by Paul Simao)
{Photograph}: On this Nov. 8, 2015 file picture, rescue staff seek for victims on the web site the place the city of Bento Rodrigues stood, after two dams burst on Thursday, Nov. 5, in Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Picture credit score: AP Picture/Felipe Dana, File.
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