Brazilian mining company Samarco said Thursday it had been ordered by Minas Gerais state to pay a 112 million reais ($30 million) fine for environmental damage caused by the bursting of one of its tailings dams, a disaster that left at least 11 dead.
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The Samarco mine waste spill is the third catastrophic tailings dam failure in the last 15 months, following Mount Polley in Canada and Buenavista del Cobre in Mexico, both in 2014. There are another four bodies awaiting identification and 12 more people missing.
Analysts estimate the overall clean-up bill in Brazil will be more than $1 billion.
“I commit to you that we will find out what went wrong”, he said.
KLEBBER Terra, the director of operations at the Samarco mine in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, said blocks of rocks were being used to reinforce the two dams, reported G1, the internet portal of the Globo television network.
“It’s not clear that that was unusual or unwarranted or part of the problem”, he said.
Compensation for the disaster may run into billions of dollars and brokers have already predicted the cost may force BHP to lower its dividend payments with Goldman Sachs suggesting it may be halved.
“Through productivity gains, we have maintained the ability to pay the progressive dividend, we have increased our capacity to grow your company and we have secured our strong balance sheet which we will never put at risk”, BHP chief executive Andrew Mackenzie told shareholders on Thursday.
“BHP and Vale’s mining disaster are ruining the lives of thousands – fishermen, ranchers, city-dwellers and the Krenak Indigenous people”, said Ricardo Baitelo, Climate and Energy campaign leader for Greenpeace Brazil.
However, Mr Nasser is disappointed with the company’s low share price, adding that it was hard to give a definitive view of where the global economy was heading as major economies went through transition. “All of us recommit to making your company safer and our communities stronger”.
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A BHP Billiton and Vale joint venture in Brazil is facing its first civil lawsuit over the dam collapse at its iron ore mine on November 5 that buried a town and contaminated the region’s main river.
