According
to media, video footage shows houses of a village destroyed by flood waters and
clay-red mud that surged down valleys in the mountainous region. Large vehicles
lay tossed on their sides. There has
been no official confirmation on the total number of dead and missing. Civil
defence authorities in Mariana said they were evacuating about 600 people to
higher ground from the village of Bento Rodrigues, about 7km (just over 4
miles) beneath the dam that burst, which was flooded as a result of the
accident.Authorities said the flood had also reached another village further
down the hill, Paracatu de Baixo, and that inhabitants there were also being
evacuated.
Rescue
crews continued to search the muddy waters after nightfall. Brazilian army
units nearby stood ready to help the search and rescue effort. Brazilian Minister of National Integration is
planning to visit the state on Friday to provide assistance, according to a
note from the presidency.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.
The
disaster comes as both Vale and BHP are battling a collapse in iron ore
pricesand a wider slump in the industry. The Germano mine is a 50-50 joint
venture between the world’s largest iron miner and the largest mining
company.Iron ore is transported down a slurry pipe to Espirito Santo in
south-eastern Brazil, where it is turned into pellets. Samarco produces around
30 million tonnes per year, according to its website.
On
a different note, WSJ stated that shares in BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s
biggest mining company by market value, fell by up to 5.4% Friday as investors
fretted about the damage caused by a dam burst at a Brazilian iron-ore
operation it jointly owns.
Mining
accidents aren’t uncommon in the region. In January 2007, the collapse of a
tailings dam owned by Mineração Rio PombaCataguases Ltda. resulted in
catastrophic flooding that left thousands homeless in the cities of Miraí and
Muriaé. But such events are a rarity for mining giant BHP, which prides itself
on high safety standards. Still, in the year through June it recorded five
worker fatalities, compared with none in the prior year. It said it had since
implemented a new companywide safety program.
Investors
feared it could shut down the mine for some time, said a Melbourne-based
analyst. The company is dual-listed in
Sydney and London.
Tailpiece
: Dam 999 is a 2011 3-D science fiction disaster film. The film is based on the
award winning short documentary DAMs - The Lethal Water Bombs and the Banqiao
dam disaster of 1975 that claimed the lives of 250,000 people in China and
anticipated calamity for outdated dams in the world. The name and theme became controversial and
the State banned screening the movie here.
With
regards – S. Sampathkumar
6th June 2015.
