Vale signed this Friday (25) a term of commitment with the authorities, in which it undertakes to pay R$ 236.7 million in consideration to the mining company after failing to comply with the legal deadline that expired this Friday for the elimination of its most important dams. dangerous in Minas Gerais.
According to a draft agreement seen by Reuters, the amount will be used to fund projects aimed at environmental preservation and the improvement of public performance related to the safety of mining tailings dams.
The document also provides that the company will undertake a series of obligations for the de-characterization of all its dams raised by the upstream method in the state, with greater risk because its walls are built on a base of waste, instead of on external material. or on solid ground.
The system was used in the dams that failed in Mariana, in 2015, and in Brumadinho, in 2019, both in Minas Gerais.
The state mining law, published a month after the collapse in Brumadinho, which occurred on January 25, 2019, gave until this Friday for all mining companies to eliminate their upstream dams. But the deadline was considered unfeasible by the industry.
Sought, Vale confirmed the signing of the term and the agreed amount. It also reiterated its commitment to the elimination of dams “in the shortest possible time, with the safety of people and care for the environment as an absolute priority.”
He also said that the agreement brings “more legal and technical security to the process of decharacterization of the 23 dams upstream of the company in Minas Gerais, since the deadline defined in State Law 23.291/2019… was technically unfeasible”.
NEW LAYERS OF SECURITY
Sought, prosecutor Carlos Eduardo Ferreira Pinto told Reuters that the term of commitment does not extend a term or grant amnesty, being a technical and legal adaptation for the implementation of the Mar de Mud Law Never Again.
“Several new layers of security, technical monitoring and publicity of the de-characterizations were foreseen, all with the objective of preventing new disasters, such as those in Mariana and Brumadinho.”
Several other companies also failed to meet the deadline and are signing terms of commitment with federal and mining authorities. Failure to comply with the law provided, for example, the suspension of company licenses.
Among the various obligations included in the draft, it is also foreseen that Vale will hire a specialized and independent technical team to provide extensive assistance in the analysis of the project and in the monitoring of the process of de-characterization of the dams.
The company is also committed to completing the de-characterization of the structures in the shortest time technically possible, considering the safety of the structure and potentially impacted people.
The company must “strictly” follow the technical project and its detailed physical schedule approved by the National Mining Agency (ANM) and the State Foundation for the Environment (Feam), which may issue additional determinations or recommendations to those contained in the project presented.
In a note, Vale also reiterated that, since 2019, seven upstream structures – four in Minas Gerais and three in Pará – have been eliminated, out of the 30 mapped by the company, practically 25% of the company’s De-characterization Program.
For this year, the conclusion of the works and the reintegration of five more structures into the environment are planned. As a result, Vale expects to end 2022 with 40% of its structures of this type eliminated. This means that 12 out of 30 dams mapped will already be uncharacterized.
The term was signed by the government of Minas Gerais, regulatory bodies and the State and Federal Public Ministry.
