Brazil Regulator Says Vale Failed To Report Dam Defects

(RTTNews) - Mining giant Vale failed to report warning signs at a massive tailings dam in Brazil that could have averted its collapse, killing at least 250 people in Brazil in January, the mining regulator said. It was the company's second deadly dam collapse in less than four years.

"If ANM had been correctly informed it could have taken precautionary measures and forced the company (Vale) to take emergency actions that could have avoided the disaster," the National Mineral Agency or ANM said in a statement.

The regulator's report, quoting internal company documents, detailed several issues that it said Vale should have reported.

The first one was in 2018 when Vale installed horizontal drainage pipes and found sediment in the drainage water.

Meanwhile, Vale said on Tuesday that the company is analyzing the regulator's 194-page report and isn't able to comment on technical decisions taken by geotechnical experts at the time.

The wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Vale's senior management had received an anonymous email warning about the state of the miner's dams two weeks before the disaster.

Vale had analyzed the email, but concluded it lacked concrete information, the report said.