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Vale signs $7bn settlement for deadly Brazil dam disaster

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A mud-hit area in Corrego do Feijao near the town of Brumadinho in the state of Minas Gerias in southeastern Brazil, on January 26, 2019 a day after the collapse of a dam at an iron-ore mine belonging to Brazil’s giant mining company Vale. More than 270 people died. (Photo by Pedro Vilela/Getty Images)

Mining giant Vale today said it will pay $7bn to a Brazilian state to settle a case originating from a deadly dam disaster in 2019.

A dam containing mining waste burst in January 2019 at a Vale facility in the town of Brumadinho in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state, releasing a torrent of sludge that killed some 270 people.

“We know that we have a long way to go and we remain firm in our purpose,” Vale’s chief executive, Eduardo Bartolomeo, said in a statement.

Shares in the US-listed miner are down just over one per cent today on the news.

In 2015 a nearby dam, co-owned by iron ore miner Vale and FTSE miner BHP Billiton, collapsed killing 19 people.

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