Five People Arrested After Brazil's Vale Dam Collapse--Update
January 29 2019 - 9:03AM
Dow Jones News
By Jeffrey T. Lewis and Paulo Trevisani
SÃO PAULO -- Brazilian police arrested five people Tuesday in
connection with the deadly collapse of a dam owned by iron-ore
producer Vale SA, including employees of the mining company, as
authorities moved to uncover the cause of the disaster.
The number killed by the tide of mud and mining debris that
spilled from the burst dam Friday had risen to 65 by Monday
evening, while nearly 300 people are still missing and feared dead.
The dam's collapse swept away nearby offices and a lunchroom
belonging to Vale and sent a river of mud smashing into parts of
the small town of Brumadinho, in Minas Gerais state.
Police said two engineers working for a company hired by Vale to
inspect the dam before its collapse were arrested in São Paulo. A
spokesman for TÜV SÜD, a German auditor and certification
organization, said two of its workers had been arrested. They had
assessed the dam in June and September of 2018. Vale has said the
company gave it a clean bill of health.
TÜV's spokesman said the company regrets the collapse of the dam
and said it is collaborating with authorities. He declined further
comment.
Three of Vale's employees were detained in or near the city of
Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais. Police also seized
documents and other items belonging to the five detainees.
Vale said in a statement that the company is cooperating fully
with investigators.
Brazil's top prosecutor said Monday evening that she would
pursue criminal charges against Vale executives. The accident
slammed Vale's shares on Monday, losing about one-fourth of their
value. The shares recovered some ground Tuesday, rising about 2% in
early trading.
Rescue workers continue to search for the missing, many of whom
are employees of Vale who were in the company's offices or its
lunchroom when the collapse occurred. Television news reports
showed images of military firefighters wading through or clambering
over a river of sludge, often using long poles to both probe the
muck and keep themselves afloat.
The catastrophe came less than four years after a similar
accident at a nearby dam half-owned by Vale killed 19 people and
contaminated hundreds of miles of river valley with mining waste.
The government at the time, headed by then-President Dilma
Rousseff, was sharply criticized for its slowness in responding to
the accident.
President Jair Bolsonaro, who was sworn in Jan. 1, formed a
crisis cabinet within hours of the accident in Brumadinho, and
ordered troops and rescue personnel to the site the same day.
--Alistair MacDonald contributed to this article.
Write to Jeffrey T. Lewis at jeffrey.lewis@wsj.com and Paulo
Trevisani at paulo.trevisani@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 29, 2019 08:48 ET (13:48 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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