A Minas Gerais state court has ordered iron ore producer Vale to disclose the number of waste dams it has, following a request by state prosecutors, SteelOrbis has learned.
According to Minas Gerais state prosecutors, MPMG, Vale had 14 “ghost dams” that the company had not officially reported before June 2020. The court gave Vale 90 days to name all the waste dams it has, including whether there are other dams that weren’t previously disclosed to regulators.
Vale could be fined at BRL 100,000 per day ($18,931) if it fails to provide the requested information. The judge said that after Vale indicated it had 14 dams that were not listed before, three of them were considered to be a level 1 risk. Dams are ranked from level 1 to level 3, in which level 3 indicates the dam could soon collapse.
Vale should also pay a BRL 15 million ($2.8 million) fine for each “new” dam it now reports.