Vale’s tailings dam ruptured in Brumadinho in late January, releasing a torrent of mud that buried hundreds of peopleMembers of a rescue team search for victims after a tailings dam owned by Vale collapsed in Brumadinho, Brazil, January 28 2019. Picture: REUTERS/ADRIANO MACHADO
The 400-page report recommended that a total of 14 individuals, including the two executives, be indicted for manslaughter, wrongful bodily injury, environmental damages and pollution. The nonbinding recommendations could influence prosecutors in their ongoing probe of Vale and its executives for negligence regarding the disaster.
One would outlaw all tailings dams for mining and industrial waste. That would go far beyond a ban instituted in February on the specific type of “upstream” dam that ruptured. It would allow for 10 years to decommission the hundreds of existing tailings dams around the country, a costly move for miners.