A tailings dam at a Brazilian iron ore operation owned by local mining giant Vale (NYSE:VALE) burst Friday, releasing a river of sludge that covered nearby buildings and forced the evacuation of hundreds of locals.
By Saturday morning, 34 bodies had been recovered, and the death toll was expected to rise sharply as rescuers continued searching for hundreds that are still missing.
Vale adding that the leaked tailings from the聽Feij茫o mine in the state of Minas Gerais had spread into the mine鈥檚 administrative area and to parts of the local community Vila Forteco, near the town of Brumadinho.
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The accident panicked locals who still have vivid memories of the , BHP and Vale鈥檚 joint venture, which killed 19 people in 2015 and became the country鈥檚 worst ever environmental disaster.
鈥淣o lessons were learned from the Mariana tragedy,鈥� Greenpeace Brazil聽campaign coordinator聽Nilo D鈥橝vila . 鈥淚t鈥檚 the same company and the same kind of accident.鈥�
Vale CEO Fabio Schvartsman said the dam at the Feij茫o mine had a capacity of 12 million cubic metres, far less than the 50 million cubic metres Samarco鈥檚 one had in 2015. He added the facility聽was being decommissioned and that聽equipment had shown the dam was stable on Jan. 10, Reuters reported.
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Brazil鈥檚 President Jair Bolsonaro lamented the incident on Twitter, adding he was sending three cabinet ministers to the area. 鈥淥ur greatest concern at this time is to attend to possible victims of this serious tragedy,鈥� he wrote.
Earlier on Friday聽AFP agency reported there were 鈥渟everal鈥� deaths as a consequence of the tragedy and Vale acknowledged in an emailed statement that there were 鈥減ossible victims鈥� among employees who were at 鈥渁n administrative facility鈥� hit by the mud.
Brazil鈥檚 National Mining Agency on Saturday ordered Vale to suspend operations at the mine and Minas Gerais state prosecutors entered a motion to freeze 5 billion reais ($1.3 billion) in the company鈥檚 accounts for handling damages. It鈥檚 expected that more funds will be frozen in days to come.
Record TV Minas caught the moment a victim was rescued by the fire corps helicopter:
The Feij茫o mine is part of Vale鈥檚 southern system operations, which is made up of three mines and two ports and accounts for about a quarter of the company鈥檚 iron ore output, according to RBC Capital Markets.
Shares in Vale, the world鈥檚 number one iron ore producer, cratered on the news and were trading almost 10% lower in New York at $9.76 by 2:05pm local time. The company鈥檚聽bonds due in 2022 also fell, hitting their lowest price since 2017.
(With files from Reuters)聽