Wednesday 30 January 2019

Another mining disaster

The mining industry leaves a trail of destruction across the world.

Last Friday, a mining tailings dam collapsed in Brazil. Arrests have been made in what is likely to become the country's worst ever environmental catastrophe. At the time of writing, the death toll has hit 84 and hundreds remain missing.


The mine in Brumadinho is operated by Vale – the fourth largest mining company in the world.

As the BBC reports:
There have been a number of high-profile disasters involving tailings dams in recent years - and there have been calls, including from the UN, to institute better safety and building regulations around them.
Little more than three years ago, a tailings dam also owned by Vale, along with Anglo-Australian BHP Billiton, burst in Mariana killing 19 people in what was then considered Brazil's worst environmental disaster – 375 families lost their homes; more than two years later they had yet to be rehoused:
... federal prosecutors claim the company... failed to take actions that they say could have prevented the disaster. The prosecutors instead claim the company focused on cutting costs and increasing production.
... more than two years later, nobody has accepted responsibility.
There are more than 400 mining dams like the one that broke in Brumadinho in the state of Minas Gerais, the hub of Brazil’s mining industry.
Some of the dams have been deemed "unstable" but have continued operating for years, said Bruno Milanez, a professor of industrial engineering at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora. What is frightening, he said, is that the dams that broke — in Mariana and Brumadinho — were certified as "stable."
As mining production has increased across the world, so has the number of disasters. As The Brazilian Report tells us:



Greenpeace Brazil’s campaigns director, Nilo D’Avila, said in a statement:
Cases like these are not accidents but environmental crimes that should be investigated, punished and repaired.
But it's not just mining companies in Brazil. Yesterday, it was the turn of British mining firm Gemfields to be in the news, settling a human rights case:
A British mining firm, Gemfields, says it has agreed to pay $7.5m to people in Mozambique who went to court in London over alleged human rights abuses at a ruby mine.
Close to 300 people living near the Montepuez mine complained that private security guards as well as Mozambican security forces had shot, beaten, sexually abused and unlawfully detained them.
Gemfields denies any responsibility for abuses but admits instances of violence have occurred at the mine.

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