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A judge in Brazil has ordered mining giant Vale to pay compensation for all damages caused by the collapse of the Brumadinho dam in January.

The collapse was Brazil's worst industrial accident.

The judge did not set a figure for the compensation but said that the company was responsible for fixing all the damages including the economic effects.

At least 248 people were killed as a sea of mud engulfed a staff canteen, offices and nearby farms.

Twenty-two people are still missing following the collapse of the Feijão dam on 25 January.

Read more on the dam collapse:

Judge Elton Pupo Nogueira also said that $2.9bn (£2.3bn) of Vale's assets frozen by courts should remain blocked. He said the funds should be used to make compensation payments to affected families and businesses.

Explaining why he had not specify an amount for Vale to pay out, he argued that technical and scientific criteria were not enough to quantify the effects of the collapse.

"The value [of the compensation] is not limited to the deaths resulting from the event, it also affects the environment on a local and regional level as well as the economic activity in the affected region."

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Aerial footage taken shortly after the collapse showed the extent of the damage

The judge said Vale had so far co-operated with the justice system and taken all the actions required from it following conciliation hearings.

He also pointed out that Vale's defence team had not denied responsibility for the damage caused by the collapse of the dam.

Mounting pressure

In a statement, Vale said it had a "total commitment to fair and quick reparations for the damages caused to families, community infrastructure and the environment".

While Judge Nogueira's ruling on Tuesday is the first conviction for Vale over dam collapse, it is unlikely to be the end of its legal troubles.

Last week, the Brazilian Senate urged prosecutors to bring charges ranging from environmental damage to involuntary manslaughter against top managers at Vale at the time of the dam collapse.

Vale said that it disagreed with the Senate's recommendation and insisted that senior company officials had not been aware of any "imminent risks" at the dam prior to its collapse.

While not legally binding, the Senate recommendation has further increased pressure on the mining giant.

There are also concerns that other dams may be at risk of collapse.</s>Around 200 people are missing after a mining dam collapsed in Brazil.

Around 200 people are missing after a mining dam collapsed in Brazil.

Brazilian mining company Vale SA said the flow reached the community of Vila Ferteco and an administrative office, where employees were present, which "indicated the possibility of victims."

The company said it did not have further information on deaths or injuries at the dam, located in the town of Brumadinho.

Parts of the city were evacuated and local firefighters were rescuing people by helicopter and ground vehicles.

There were no official reports of deaths, but the state fire department press department told The Associated Press that about 200 people were estimated to be missing.

Local television channel TV Record showed a firefighters' helicopter hovering inches off the ground as it pulled people covered in mud out of the sludge.

Photos showed the rooftops of structures poking above an extensive field of the mud, which also cut off roads.

President Jair Bolsonaro sent a tweet saying he lamented the incident and was sending the three cabinet ministers to the area.

Another dam administered by Vale and Australian mining company BHP Billiton collapsed in Mariana, Minas Gerais, in 2015, resulting in 19 deaths and displacing hundreds from their homes.

It is considered the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history, with 60 million cubic metres of waste flooding rivers and eventually reaching the Atlantic Ocean.

The rivers of mining waste are raising fears of widespread contamination. According to Vale's website, tailings are mostly made up of sand and are non-toxic. However, a UN report found that the waste from the 2015 disaster "contained high levels of toxic heavy metals". The 2015 collapse left 250,000 people without drinking water and killed thousands of fish.

Vale is Brazil's largest mining company. Two hours after the accident, Vale stocks fell 10% on the New York Stock Exchange.</s>SAO PAULO (AP) — A mining dam collapsed in southeastern Brazil on Friday, flooding a nearby community and raising fears of widespread contamination.

Brazilian mining company Vale SA said in a statement that it didn't yet have information on deaths or injuries at the dam in Minas Gerais state, but said that tailings have reached the community of Vila Ferteco and an administrative office. Parts of the city were evacuated and local firefighters were rescuing people by helicopter and ground vehicles.

Local television channel TV Record showed a firefighter's helicopter hovering inches off the ground as it hoisted a woman covered in mud out of the sludge.

Another local TV channel showed a video shot by firefighters arriving on the scene showing an extensive area covered in mud.

President Jair Bolsonaro sent a tweet saying he lamented the incident and was sending the three cabinet ministers to the area.

Another dam administered by Vale and Australian mining company BHP Billiton collapsed in Mariana, Minas Gerais, in 2015, resulting in 19 deaths and dislocating hundreds from their homes. It's considered the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history.

Vale is Brazil's largest mining company. Two hours after the accident, Vale stocks fell 10 percent on the New York Stock Exchange.</s>BRUMADINHO, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazilian rescue workers searched for hundreds of people missing and feared dead under a sea of mud after a tailings dam burst at an iron ore mine owned by Vale SA (VALE3.SA), killing at least 34 people and halting mine operations.

The dam ruptured on Friday, releasing a torrent of mud that tore through the miner’s offices and cut through a nearby town, leaving a roughly 150-meter-wide (500-foot-wide) wake of destruction stretching for miles (km).

The Minas Gerais state fire department, which gave the latest confirmed death toll, also said 23 people had been sent to hospitals. Some 250 people remained missing, according to a list released by Vale.

Firefighters focused their hopes for finding survivors on a bus, a train, offices and nearby homes that were buried after the dam break at Vale’s Corrego do Feijao mine in Minas Gerais state.

Reuters witnesses saw homes knocked over, roadway washed out and a rail bridge demolished by the wave of mud.

Frantic family members of the missing crowded into a warehouse set up by Vale for those affected, next to a stretch of river erased by the sludge. More than a dozen helicopters helping to survey the area took off and landed from a soccer field nearby.

“Unfortunately, at this point, the chances of finding survivors are minimal. We’re likely to just be recovering bodies,” Romeu Zema, governor of Minas Gerais, told local media.

During a news conference, Zema said the mining complex had all its permits in order and it was unclear what caused the collapse of the dam, which had been inactive for years.

German auditor TUV SUD said on Saturday it had inspected the tailings dam last September and found it to be operating well.

The National Mining Agency ordered Vale, the world’s largest producer of iron ore, to halt operations at the Corrego do Feijao mine, located near the town of Brumadinho.

State courts in two separate actions froze a total of 6 billion reais ($1.59 billion) in Vale’s accounts to eventually pay for damages. Environmental agency Ibama fined Vale 250 million reais for regulatory violations, while state environmental agency Semad fined the miner 99 million reais.

The death toll was expected to rise sharply, according to Avimar de Melo Barcelos, the mayor of Brumadinho.

Inside Vale’s center for families of the victims, Carolina Oliveira Damaceno said her husband was missing. When a rescue worker came to tell her they were still searching, she fainted and had to be carried away on a stretcher.

“Vale is not telling us anything,” said her mother, Lívia.

Israel offered to send search equipment that could be used to find victims in up to 10 meters (33 feet) of mud, Zema said. Search dogs were being flown in from Rio de Janeiro to aid in the rescue efforts.

All of those missing are Vale employees or contractors, a police spokesman said.

“I know a lot of the affected people: Two sisters-in-law, a cousin, many friends there in the community. They’re in the mud,” local resident Carlos Jose dos Santos told Reuters.

Minas Gerais is still recovering from the 2015 collapse of a larger dam that killed 19 people in Brazil’s worst environmental disaster. That dam, owned by the Samarco Mineracao SA joint venture between Vale and BHP Group Ltd (BHP.AX), buried a village and poured toxic waste into a major river.

The latest dam burst could undercut new President Jair Bolsonaro’s promise to cut regulation in the sector and could make investors already wary of investing in Brazil’s mining sector even more hesitant.

Bolsonaro visited Minas Gerais and flew over the disaster area on Saturday morning. He also dispatched there three ministers, who addressed reporters along with Zema.

Vale Chief Executive Fabio Schvartsman said on Friday the dam that burst was being decommissioned and its capacity was about a fifth of the total waste spilled at Samarco. He said equipment had shown the dam was stable on Jan. 10 and it was too soon to say why it collapsed.

The Corrego do Feijao mine is one of four in Vale’s Paraoeba complex, which includes two processing plants. The complex produced 26 million tonnes of iron ore in 2017, or about 7 percent of Vale’s output, with Corrego do Feijao accounting for 7.8 million tonnes, according to the company’s website.

Operations at Samarco, near the town of Mariana, remain halted over new licensing, while the companies have worked to pay damages out of court, including an agreement that quashed a 20 billion reais civil lawsuit last year.

Federal prosecutors have suspended but have not closed an even larger lawsuit against Samarco as they negotiate a settlement.. The latest dam collapse “may completely change the course of those talks,” federal prosecutor Jose Adercio Sampaio told Reuters.

“The company will account for all the damages it has caused,” Sampaio said, adding that the state and federal government also had tighten safety regulations.

“To maintain the current policy on dam safety is to ask for another Mariana, to ask for another Brumidinho, to ask for more cases, because there is a lack of state oversight ... we will see one tragedy after another.”</s>Firefighters focused their hopes on a bus, a train, mining offices and nearby homes that were buried on Friday when a torrent of mud was unleashed by the dam break at Vale's Corrego do Feijao facility in Minas Gerais state.

More than a dozen helicopters flew over the area on Saturday to survey the disaster and aid the rescue teams.

The state fire department said in a statement that only 10 bodies had been found so far. In a separate statement, the department reduced the number of missing to roughly 300 people, after 46 were found alive.

"Unfortunately, at this point, the chances of finding survivors are minimal. We're likely to just be recovering bodies," Romeu Zema, governor of Minas Gerais, told local media.

During a press conference, Zema said the mining complex had all its permits in order and it was unclear what caused the collapse of the dam, which had been inactive for years.

The National Mining Agency ordered Vale, the largest producer of iron ore in the world, to halt operations at the Corrego do Feijao mine, located near the town of Brumadinho in mining-focused Minas Gerais, according to a document seen by Reuters.

State prosecutors have requested that 5 billion reais ($1.33 billion) in Vale's accounts be frozen to be directed toward efforts to pay for damages, Antonio Sergio Tonet, a prosecutor with the Minas Gerais Justice Department, told reporters, saying he expected more assets to be frozen.

Earlier, a state judge ordered Vale to freeze 1 billion reais in its accounts.

The death toll was expected to rise sharply, according to Avimar de Melo Barcelos, the mayor of Brumadinho.

Israel has offered to send search equipment that could be used to find victims in up to 10 meters (33 feet) of mud, Zema said. Search dogs were being flown in from Rio de Janeiro to aid in the rescue efforts.

All of those missing are Vale employees or contractors, a police spokesman said.

"I know a lot of the affected people: Two sisters-in-law, a cousin, many friends there in the community. They're in the mud," local resident Carlos Jose dos Santos told Reuters.

Minas Gerais is still recovering from the 2015 collapse of a larger dam that killed 19 people in Brazil’s worst environmental disaster. That dam, owned by the Samarco Mineracao SA joint venture between Vale and BHP Group Ltd, buried a village and poured toxic waste into a major river.

New Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro visited Minas Gerais and flew over the disaster area Saturday morning. He dispatched three ministers to the area, who addressed reporters after Zema.

Vale Chief Executive Fabio Schvartsman said the dam that burst on Friday was being decommissioned and its capacity was about a fifth of the total waste spilled at Samarco. He said equipment had shown the dam was stable on Jan. 10 and it was too soon to say why it collapsed.

The Corrego do Feijao mine is one of four in Vale's Paraoeba complex, which includes two processing plants. The complex produced 26 million tonnes of iron ore in 2017, or about 7 percent of Vale's output, with Corrego do Feijao accounting for 7.8 million tonnes, according to the company's website.

Operations at Samarco remain halted over new licensing, while the companies have worked to pay damages out of court, including an agreement that quashed a 20 billion reais ($5.31 billion) civil lawsuit last year. Federal prosecutors suspended but have not closed an even larger lawsuit.</s>At least 11 people are dead and up to 300 people have been reported missing after an apparent dam collapse in Brazil on Friday.

At least 266 Vale mining company employees are among the missing, a spokesperson for the southeastern state of Minas Gerais said.

A spokesperson for Minas Gerais state’s Civil Defense said 189 people have been rescued so far.

Vale, the company that operates the dame, is the country's largest mining company, according to The Associated Press.

"Part of the Vila Ferteco community has also been affected," the mining company said in a statement. "Rescue and care of the wounded is being carried out on site by the Fire Department and Civil Defense. There is still no confirmation as to the cause of the accident.

"The top priority of the company right now is to support the rescue efforts and to help preserve and protect the lives of direct employees, third-party employees and local communities," the statement added.

Nineteen people were killed when the village of Bento Rodrigues, also in Minas Gerais, was destroyed when a dam owned by Samarco, a joint venture by Vale and another Brazilian company, collapsed in November 2015. In the wake of that collapse, Samarco has provided $4.4 billion in compensation to the region over the past three years, according to Vale's annual report.</s>Brazilian mining giant Vale was hit with an initial $66.5 million fine Saturday over a dam collapse at one of its mines a day earlier that killed at least 10 people and left hundreds missing.

The amount, confirmed by multiple sources including a government official, was announced by the environment ministry, which did not immediately give an official figure.

It was levied by the government's environmental protection agency Ibama.

The penalty, for violations at the Vale iron ore mine in Brumaldinho, near the city of Belo Horizonte, will likely be followed by others as authorities evaluate the scale and gravity of the disaster, analysts told Brazilian media.

An official dealing with environmental issues in Minas Gerais state, where the dam collapse happened, told AFP the state was preparing another fine.

State authorities have already ordered $265 million in Vale's bank accounts be frozen with a view to making the funds available to victims of the disaster.

“The full force of the law” will be applied to those responsible, Minas Gerais governor Romeu Zema told reporters.

Shares in Vale, one of the biggest mining companies in the world, fell 8 per cent in New York on Friday after the disaster occurred.

The company was involved in a similar dam collapse in 2015 at another mine it operated elsewhere in Minas Gerais in conjunction with Anglo-Australian company BHP.

In that case, their joint venture was slapped with a similar-sized fine that was later reduced, but which was in any case far eclipsed by an agreed $2.3-billion compensation payout — and an ever bigger lawsuit that is still pending.</s>The earlier toll after a torrent of mud broke through the dam Friday was seven dead and 150 missing, according to officials who sought to evaluate the full scope of the disaster.

The tailings dam, owned by Brazilian mining giant Vale, broke apart "very violently, very suddenly," sending a massive torrent of mud over the complex where hundreds of employees were working, Vale CEO Fabio Schvartsman told a news conference in Rio de Janeiro.

The deluge rumbled on to the nearby town of Brumadinho, located southwest of the city of Belo Horizonte, cutting a swath through vegetation, farmland and roads, and impeding access to the area.

Brazil's new government led by President Jair Bolsonaro reacted to its first big emergency since taking office early this month by launching disaster coordination between the defence, mining and environment ministries and authorities in the affected state of Minas Gerais.

Mr Schvartsman called the dam break "a human tragedy, because we're talking about probably a large number of victims -- we don't know how many but we know it will be a high number."

The CEO, who had his two-year term renewed last month by Vale's board, said it was an "inactive dam" that was in the process of being decommissioned that burst apart.

The Minas Gerais government statement said 427 people had been working at the Vale mine at the time of the dam collapse, and 279 were recovered alive. The others were listed as missing.

Romeo Zema, the governor of Minas Gerais state, told reporters that, while all was being done to find survivors, "from now, the odds are minimal and it is most likely we will recover only bodies."

That accident three years ago released millions of tons of toxic iron waste along hundreds of kilometers (miles), causing what is considered the country's worst environmental disaster. Vale was joint operator of that dam, along with the Anglo-Australian group BHP.

The Brazil office of Greenpeace, the environmental activist group, said Fridays dam break was "a sad consequence of the lessons not learned by the Brazilian government and the mining companies."</s>Brasilia, Jan 26 (IANS) A dam collapse at an iron-ore mine in southeast Brazil has left at least nine people dead and up to 300 missing, officials said.

The dam burst on Friday caused a sea of muddy sludge to spread across rural areas of Brumadinho city in Minas Gerais state, burying buildings and vehicles, the BBC reported.

Governor Romeu Zema said nine people were confirmed dead and there was little chance of finding people alive as rescue operations continued on Saturday.

According to reports, homes were destroyed in Brumadinho and rescue teams airlifted people covered in mud from the area due to damaged roads. It was not clear what caused the collapse of the dam, owned by Brazil’s largest mining company Vale.

Many of those missing were workers who were having lunch in the dam’s cafeteria that was buried by the sludge. The dam near the Feijao iron ore mine burst its barrier at around lunchtime on Friday, flooding another dam down below.

Leaked tailings from the mine spread into the nearby community of Vila Forteco, close to Brumadinho.

“Our main worry now is to quickly find out where the missing people are,” Brumadinho Mayor Avimar de Melo told television channel GloboNews.

On Twitter, President Jair Bolsonaro called it a “serious tragedy” and was set to visit Minas Gerais and fly over the disaster area on Saturday, after sending three ministers there a day before.

Built in 1976, the dam was one of several in the area and it was used to hold residue from the mine. With a capacity of 12 million cubic metre the site had been lying inactive for three years, according to Vale. It was not yet known how much waste was released.

The accident came just over three years since a dam burst in another town in Minas Gerais, that killed 19 people.</s>BRUMADINHO (Brazil)
• Brazilian rescue workers yesterday searched for roughly 300 missing people after a tailings dam burst at an iron ore mine owned by Vale, amid faint hopes of finding many alive, three years after a similar disaster involving the miner.

Nine people have been found dead after the dam burst last Friday, while nearly 200 people have been rescued, according to firemen running the rescue effort in the town of Brumadinho.

"Unfortunately, at this point, the chances of finding survivors are minimal. We're likely to just be rescuing bodies," Mr Romeu Zema, governor of the mining-intensive state of Minas Gerais where the disaster struck, told local press.

The death toll was expected to rise sharply, according to Mr Avimar de Melo Barcelos, mayor of the town of Brumadinho located near the mine. The cause of the rupture is not known.

Rescuers have mapped out four points where people could still be found alive, including a cafeteria buried in sludge around lunchtime, a police spokesman said.

Search dogs were being flown in from Rio de Janeiro.

All of those missing are Vale employees or contractors, the spokesman said.

Mr Renato Simao de Oliveiras, 32, was searching hospitals and with the police for his brother, who had worked for Vale for six years, and was despairing at the lack of information.

"I heard about it when I was at work. I called him several times but couldn't get a hold of him," he said. "We're lost, we don't know anything."

The state is still recovering from the collapse in November 2015 of a larger dam that killed 19 people in Brazil's worst environmental disaster. That dam, owned by the Samarco Mineracao joint venture between Vale and BHP Group, buried a village and poured toxic waste into a major river.

A state judge ordered Vale to freeze one billion reals (S$359 million) in its accounts, to be held against damage caused by the dam rupture.

President Jair Bolsonaro was set to visit Minas Gerais and fly over the disaster area yesterday, after dispatching three ministers there last Friday.

Vale chief executive Fabio Schvartsman said the dam that burst last Friday at the Feijao iron mine was being decommissioned and its capacity was about a fifth of the total waste spilled at Samarco.

He said equipment had shown the dam was stable on Jan 10 and it was too soon to say why it collapsed.

The Feijao mine is one of four in Vale's Paraopeba complex, which includes two processing plants and produced 26 million tonnes of iron ore in 2017, or about 7 per cent of Vale's total output, according to information on the company's website. Mr Schvartsman declined to say how output would be affected.

Operations at Samarco remain halted over new licensing, while the companies have worked to pay damages out of court, including an agreement that quashed a 20 billion reals civil lawsuit last year.

Federal prosecutors suspended but have still not closed an even larger lawsuit.

Iron ore prices are likely to rise in the wake of the disaster as there may be less supply on the market for the short term, said Mr Chris LaFemina, a Jefferies mining industry analyst.
A mining dam owned by the Brazilian company Vale collapses in Minas Gerais, leaving 248 dead and 22 people missing.