Brazil miner and iron ore producer Vale said one of its 15 dams located in the country’s Midwest region is currently at risk, according to media reports citing a statement from the company.
According to Vale, out of the 15 dams it has in the country’s Midwest region, just one of them, the Gregorio dam, is seen as having a high risk of associated potential damage. Vale explained the Gregorio dam has a total capacity volume of 9.3 million cubic meters, and complies with all legal requirements. The company said the dam’s control instruments present normal conditions and no anomalies have been detected so far.
Brazil’s environmental authority, Ibama, said that even if the dam collapsed, there would be no risk to it reach the city of Corumba, which is located about 48.1 km from the Gregorio dam.
“The [dam’s] situation is comfortable. Currently, the city of Corumba can keep calm,” said Regis Pereira, from the nation’s department of mineral production, DNPM, quoted by local media.
Likewise DNPM, Ibama discarded a chance of a Mariana-like disaster, in case the Gregorio dam collapses. Despite discarding any chance of harm to the local population, Ibama said the biome of the Pantanal would be impacted as a result of a collapse of the structure.
A media report on Tuesday said the mud that killed much of the life of the Doce River and which reached the Atlantic Ocean this week contained waste from Vale.
Vale used to use the dam to discard its iron ore waste. Vale said less than 5 percent of the waste at the Fundao dam, which burst and caused what is said to be Brazil’s worst environmental disaster, came from Vale’s iron ore operations.
Brazil’s environment minister, Izabella Teixeira, said Samarco’s mud will be monitored for 120 days.
Seventeen days after the disaster, Samarco, the 50/50 JV owned by Brazil’s Vale and BHP Billiton, decided to contract a specialized company to elaborate an environment recovery plan, as a result of the dam burst earlier this month.