A helicopter crew makes a dramatic rescue in southeastern Brazil. Photo courtesy mercopress
Bogota, Feb 19 – (NNN-AGENCIES) – Brazil’s National Mining Agency has banned upstream tailings dams, local media reported Monday, which was the same type that burst in south-eastern Minas Gerais state in January, leaving at least 169 people dead.
Such dams need to be removed or decommissioned by August 2021, the daily Folha de Sao Paulo quoted the agency as saying.
The structures of such dams must be reinforced by 2020 to reduce risks while they are being decommissioned.
And by August this year, mining companies need to deactivate facilities requiring a human presence in areas that would be affected by a potential accident.
The dam operated by the mining giant Vale in Brumadinho ruptured on January 25, unleashing 12 million cubic metres of sludge on an area measuring 290 hectares.
The official death toll stands at 169, while 141 people remain missing.
The disaster followed the rupture of a similar dam operated by Vale in Minas Gerais in 2015, when 19 people were killed.
Brazil has 84 such dams; 43 would cause large-scale damage if they burst, according to Folha de Sao Paulo.
The dams have no separate concrete walls to hold back their contents, but stand over muddy mining waste.
“The accidents call into question the effectiveness of this construction method and the real stability of upstream dams,” the National Mining Agency said.