Death Toll From Brazilian Dam Collapse Jumps to 99
30 Janeiro 2019 - 8:50PM
Dow Jones News
By Jeffrey T. Lewis and Paulo Trevisani
SÃO PAULO -- The death toll from the Brumadinho tailings dam
disaster in Brazil rose to 99 on Wednesday, with another 259
missing and feared dead, the country's civil-defense authorities
said.
The dam, owned by Brazilian iron-ore giant Vale SA, burst on
Friday, burying the company's local offices, a busy lunchroom and a
nearby village under a thick layer of reddish-brown muck.
Rescue workers have said there is little chance any of the
people still buried under the sea of sludge are still alive and the
number of dead is expected to rise over coming days, as rescue
efforts shifted to where the lunchroom swept away by a tide of mud
probably settled. An official close to the case said the final
death toll could be over 300.
Brazil's government took further action Wednesday to help people
affected by the disaster, approving programs to aid fishermen and
farmers in the region, while also developing a plan to inspect
3,386 dams around the country that pose a potential risk to human
life.
Financial markets reacted well Wednesday to a plan announced
Tuesday evening by Vale Chief Executive Fabio Schvartsman to
accelerate its program to dismantle 10 dams similar to the one that
collapsed in Brumadinho, while halting all mining activity near
them. Vale shares closed 9% higher at 46.60 reais ($12.65). The
company's stock price plummeted on Monday, losing almost
one-quarter of its value, then rose almost 1% on Tuesday.
"We believe the decommissioning of these dams is a prudent move
by Vale; reducing the risk of another dam collapse is well worth
the $1.3 billion Vale will spend to decommission these structures,"
said Christopher LaFemina, an analyst at Jefferies, in a note.
The plan will cost about 5 billion reais ($1.3 billion), halt
about 10% of Vale'sannual production and take one to three years to
complete, Mr. Schvartsman said. The company also said it would
increase output at other facilities to offset the loss of
production.
Local residents, though, said they want the company to finish
more quickly.
"They have to get rid of these dams right away, in less than
three years, " said Silvio Campos, 70, a novelist who lives in the
area near another mining dam. "I'm afraid. Everyone here is so sad,
and there's no hope. The development created by Vale usually
doesn't compensate for the risks it creates."
The company had already stopped using the type of dam that
collapsed Friday in Brumadinho, known as an upstream dam, about
three years ago after a similar dam burst about 80 miles away in a
town called Mariana, killing 19 people and spewing a river of
mining waste that contaminated hundreds of miles of river
valleys.
Upstream dams are cheaper to build than other types, but they
are more prone to failure, according to experts. After the Mariana
accident, Vale began the process of decommissioning, or
dismantling, the 19 upstream dams it owned at the time, and had
already decommissioned nine of them by the time of the Brumadinho
disaster, according to Mr. Schvartsman.
Mr. Schvartsman said the company didn't carry out the process
more quickly because safety audits of the dams showed them to be in
good condition.
Write to Jeffrey T. Lewis at jeffrey.lewis@wsj.com and Paulo
Trevisani at paulo.trevisani@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 30, 2019 17:35 ET (22:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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