Brazil's Comptroller General has ordered mining company Vale to pay a fine of 86.3 million reais (€16.5 million) after deciding the firm had failed to present reliable information regarding the state of its Brumadinho tailings dam prior to its collapse in 2019.
Mining tailings after dam collapse in Brumadinho. Credit: Christyam de Lima / Shutterstock
Mining tailings after dam collapse in Brumadinho. Credit: Christyam de Lima / Shutterstock
The collapse of the dam at Vale’s Corrego do Feijao mine in January 2019 claimed the lives of 270 people, ravaged local communities and damaged nearby forests and rivers.
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The latest fine represents a fraction of the more than 27 billion reais (€5.7 billion) that Vale has spent so far in compensation and removing upstream tailing dams.
The Brazilian agency found no signs of corruption and recognised the non-involvement of the company's top management, Vale said in its statement. This could stand to favour the current and former Vale executives who have been named as defendants in lawsuits connected to the disaster.
However, the latest fine could also be used in class-action lawsuits by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which has accused Vale of making false claims about safety before the collapse as well as misleading communities, local governments, and investors. These allegations have been roundly denied by the Rio de Janeiro-based miner.
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The mining firm has said that it did not agree with the Comptroller General's decision and would appeal within the next ten days.
Vale said the government considered that the company had wrongly issued a positive Stability Condition Statement – a document that certifies the safety of a dam – to the National Mining Agency for Brumadinho’s tailings dam from June to September 2018.
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