Drainage And Design Issues Blamed For Failure Of Samarco Dam In Brazil

(RTTNews) - A 10 month investigation into last year's Samarco mine disaster in Brazil has found that the fatal collapse in November 2015 was due to a range of construction and design flaws. The resulting collapse of a tailings dam killed 19 people.

BHP Billiton Ltd. said it will centralize dam management and apply the industry's most rigorous evaluation process at its mines following a company review in the wake of a disaster last year in Brazil.

The newly created "dam-management function" will bring additional specialists in-house, the Melbourne-based company said in a statement. BHP also said it will apply the safety-assessment process developed by the Canadian Dam Association. 

The appraisal was separate from an audit released Monday by a panel looking into the causes of the rupture at the Samarco mine, a joint venture between BHP and Vale SA. That inquiry determined that cracks in 2014 showed rising saturation and dam height made drainage less effective, panel chairman Norbert Morgenstern said.

BHP Billiton and Vale are also continuing to review operating arrangements at the Samarco joint venture.

"In the wake of this event, we have separately undertaken a comprehensive review of our significant dams, which has confirmed that those dams are stable. We will take a number of actions to further enhance risk management at these facilities," Dean Dalla Valle, BHP's chief commercial officer, said in the statement.