A tailings dam at an iron-ore mine in Minas Gerais state of Brazil, broke last night, inundating the entire rural district of Bento Rodrigues, which is about 20 km from the small city Mariana.
According to Mariana municipality government, teams from the Fire Department, agents of the Municipal Guard and Municipal Civil Defence were immediately despatched to the scene.
In a statement made soon after the dam failed, Mariana municipality government said emergency teams are evacuating all residents of Bento Rodrigues (around 600 people) and initially taking them to higher, safer ground in the district of Camargos.
Civil Defence authorities have struggled to reach affected areas and so far have been unable to confirm casualties. Reports from Brazil’s G1 news portal suggest that as many as 15 people are dead, and around 45 missing.
The tailings dam, known as Barragem de Fundão, is located at the Germano iron-ore mine and is operated by Samarco. BHP Billiton and Vale are 50 per cent shareholders in Samarco.
In a statement made earlier, CEO of BHP Billiton said:
“We still don’t know the full extent of the situation, but we are working closely with Samarco, and with Vale, to better understand the circumstances”.
Video providing aerial view of the affected region:
Fundão Dam
About the dam at Fundão, the Guardian said:
“Authorities said the dam was built to hold back water and residue from mining operations, a mixture that can often be toxic. The dam was holding so-called tailings, a mining waste product of metal filings, water and occasionally chemicals. It was located near the Gualaxo do Norte river, fuelling fears of potential water contamination”.
Merriespruit Tailings Dam
In February 1994 the Merriespruit tailings dam failed, destroying eighty homes and killing seventeen people in the area near Virginia in South Africa. The flood that was released was a mixture of water, sediment and slime from the gold tailing process. The volume of water that flowed out was six hundred thousand metres squared.
