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Mine Disasters Seen Showing Cost of Cheap Waste Solutions – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – November 18, 2015)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

As miners globally review the way they store waste in the wake of another horrific dam spill, the solution may be as simple as it is dramatic: spend a lot more.

Images of sludge spewing into towns and rivers could be a thing of the past if mines used different types of storage such as removing water or building on more stable ground. While that can be as much as 10 times costlier for companies already squeezed by slumping prices, the cost is much higher when things go wrong.

The cleanup bill for the Nov. 5 spill at the Samarco iron-ore venture in Brazil, owned by BHP Billiton Ltd. and Vale SA, probably will exceed $1 billion, Deutsche Bank AG said. Then there’s lost output and potential lawsuits.

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[Sudbury] Health unit wants forum to ‘air concerns’ about Vale spill – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – November 14, 2015)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The Sudbury and District Health Unit is looking to coordinate a meeting at which representatives of three levels of government, an environmental group and others would discuss a situation that prompted an Environment Canada investigation at Vale Ltd.

The first Burgess Hawkins heard about Environment Canada seizing computers and materials from the mining giant, in relation to an alleged 2012 violation of the Fisheries Act, was when he read a news story about the raid, first reported by The Sudbury Star.

Since early last month, when Environment Canada produced a warrant and was accompanied by the RCMP to Vale’s engineering offices in Copper Cliff, Burgess has been keeping an eye on the unfolding investigation.

A manager in the SDHU’s Environmental Health division, Burgess said Friday he has had conversations with officials with the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, and talked with a co-chair of the Coalition for a Liveable Sudbury.

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Brazil mining flood could devastate environment for years – by Stephen Eisenhammer (Reuters U.S. – November 15, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

RIO DOCE, BRAZIL – The collapse of two dams at a Brazilian mine has cut off drinking water for quarter of a million people and saturated waterways downstream with dense orange sediment that could wreck the ecosystem for years to come.

Nine people were killed, 19 are still listed as missing and 500 people were displaced from their homes when the dams burst at an iron ore mine in southeastern Brazil on Nov. 5.

The sheer volume of water disgorged by the dams and laden with mineral waste across nearly 500 km is staggering: 60 million cubic meters, the equivalent of 25,000 Olympic swimming pools or the volume carried by about 187 oil tankers.

President Dilma Rousseff compared the damage to the 2010 oil spill by BP PLC in the Gulf of Mexico and Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira called it an “environmental catastrophe.”

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Residents deserve answers about Vale runoff – by Naomi Grant and Lilly Noble (Sudbury Star – November 13, 2015)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

What’s your reaction when you see your neighbourhood playground in the news in relation to contaminated runoff?

“We just moved in August from three houses down from the site. Kids played there all the time. A little pissed off right now that nobody alerted us to the problem.”

“I lived near there for 20 years … They knew all that time and didn’t inform any-one. Our kids played at that park since it was built.”

“Who is going to test my soil? Who is going to give us answers?” These are a few of the comments posted by residents in response to the news that Vale runoff saturated a school board property in the west end, the site of Travers playground, for years.

Residents have received no information from regulatory agencies, authorities or Vale. Let’s look at the information available so far.

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Iron Ore Crisis Could Be Followed By A Nickel Crisis For BHP Billiton And Vale – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – November 13, 2015)

http://www.forbes.com/

The last thing two of the world’s biggest mining companies, BHP Billiton and Vale , need today is speculation that after the disaster at their jointly owned Samarco iron ore mine in Brazil they might also have to close big nickel-mining operations to stem a tide of heavy losses.

That, however, is precisely what has been suggested by research analysts at the investment bank Credit Suisse who have painted a depressing picture of demand for the metal which is largely used to make stainless steel.

Vale, as well as being the world’s biggest iron ore miner is the world’s biggest nickel producer thanks largely to its 2006 takeover of Canada’s Inco.

BHP Billiton is also a big nickel producer via its Australian business unit, Nickel West. The attraction of nickel to both is that buyers are essentially the same, with companies that buy iron ore also buyers of nickel to make stainless steel.

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Brazil levies initial fines of $66 million against mine for burst dams – by Stephen Eisenhammer and Marta Mogueira (Reuters U.S. – November 12, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

MARIANA, BRAZIL – Brazil’s president slapped preliminary fines of 250 million reais ($66.2 million) against a mine in the country’s southeast where two dams burst, killing nine people and coating a two-state area with mud and mine waste.

The fines, announced after President Dilma Rousseff flew over the affected area, come as federal prosecutors announced plans to work with state prosecutors to investigate possible crimes that could have contributed to the disaster at the mine, jointly owned by two of the world’s biggest mining companies, BHP Billiton Ltd (BHP.AX)(BLT.L) and Vale SA (VALE5.SA).

Rousseff said the fines, imposed by Brazil’s environmental regulator IBAMA for violations that include river pollution and damages to urban areas where water service has been suspended, could be followed by penalties from other federal or state agencies.

The top government lawyer is working with IBAMA to sue the mine owners for up to $1 billion in environmental damages in civil court, a senior administration official told Reuters.

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Deadly Brazil dam collapse puts spotlight on mining safety – by Gordon Hoekstra (Vancouver Sun – November 12, 2015)

http://www.vancouversun.com/

Similar tailings dam failure took place last year at Mount Polley mine in B.C. Interior

A deadly mine tailings dam collapse in Brazil has reignited concerns about safety in British Columbia where a similar collapse at Mount Polley mine last year caused environmental damage but no fatalities.

The catastrophic collapse of a dam at the Samarco iron ore mine, a joint venture of Vale SA and BHP Billiton, has left eight confirmed dead, another 21 people missing and hundreds of Brazilians displaced.

In the aftermath of the Brazil dam failure last week, both First Nations and environmentalists in B.C. are pointing to research released last summer by U.S.-based conservation groups, including the Center for Science in Public Participation, that predicted there would be more mine dam failures around the world as companies pursue lower-grade ore bodies that require bigger operations to make them economical and produce larger amounts of mine waste.

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Brazil vows to make BHP, Vale pay for deadly mine disaster – by Stephen Eisenhammer and Marta Nogueira (Reuters U.S. – November 11, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

MARIANA, BRAZIL – Brazil’s government said on Wednesday it may fine mining giants BHP Billiton Ltd and Vale SA for the “environmental catastrophe” caused by ruptured dams at an iron ore mine jointly owned by the companies in a southeastern state.

The government is increasingly concerned over the rising death toll and contaminated mud flowing through two states as a result of the disaster. It is studying the mine’s permits and will ensure the owners pay for cleanup costs, Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira said in Brasília, the capital.

“If federal fines are applicable, we will apply them,” Teixeira told reporters. “There will be punishment, and under Brazilian law the environment has to be repaired.”

Her remarks are the strongest yet from the government, which was caught off-guard by a disaster that killed at least eight people and left another 21 missing in the mineral-rich state of Minas Gerais nearly a week ago.

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Anger at burst dams in Brazil focuses on Vale, mining code – by Stephen Eisenhammer and Marta Nogueira (Reuters U.S. – November 10, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

MARIANA, BRAZIL – As despair turns to anger over a deadly dam burst at a Brazilian mine, lawmakers pushed on Tuesday for tougher regulations in a new mining code and iron ore giant Vale SA came under pressure to help mourning families and contain the environmental impact.

In five days of rescue efforts in towns ravaged by the massive mudflow, six bodies have been found and 22 people are still missing, making it one of the worst mining disasters in Brazil’s history.

The tragedy in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais has displaced hundreds of residents, triggered investigations by prosecutors and spurred calls for stricter oversight of the mining industry, a huge provider of jobs and government tax receipts in the mineral-rich state.

The chief sponsor of a new mining code in Congress, Leonardo Quintão, told Reuters on Tuesday that he planned to add measures to tighten regulation of tailings dams like the two that collapsed on Thursday, which hold back waste water from processing iron ore.

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Rush to speed Brazil mine permit may be behind dam disaster – by Anthony Boadle and Alonso Soto (Reuters U.S. – November 9, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

BRASILIA – Mining companies often complain endless red tape makes it hard to do business in Brazil but prosecutors and environmentalists say burst dams at an iron ore mine that triggered massive flooding last week point to gaping lapses in regulation.

The floodwaters and mudflow killed at least two people and another 25 are still listed as missing in a disaster that came two years after a study requested by a prosecutor warned the dams in the mineral-rich state of Minas Gerais could collapse.

“It was evident this dam was risky,” Carlos Eduardo Pinto, a state prosecutor who probes the mining industry, told Reuters, referring to the first dam that gave way, leading to the rupture of another.

Pinto is investigating whether a tailings pond, a reservoir for water with mine waste held by the dam, was too full.  The dams burst on Thursday at a mine operated by Samarco, a joint venture between BHP Billiton Ltd , the world’s largest mining company, and Vale SA, the biggest iron ore miner.

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BHP says ‘no confirmation’ of cause of dam failure, reviewing ore forecasts – by Rhiannon Hoyle (Dow Jones/The Australian – November 9, 2015)

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

BHP Billiton shares have hit a seven-year low in the wake of the deadly collapse of two tailing dams at a mine in Brazil. As more information emerges, analysts are trying to tote up the potential bill for BHP and Vale of Brazil, the mine’s co-owner.

The dam breach was the largest-ever spill of its kind, according to Robert Chambers, president of the non-profit Centre for Science in Public Participation, whose group has tracked these types of failures back to 1915.

The cost to the companies, including for clean-up and rebuilding, could top $US1 billion, said Paul Young, a Sydney-based analyst at Deutsche Bank, who estimated the mine could be closed until about 2019. He described the dam burst as “catastrophic.”

“The uncertainty regarding clean-up and legal costs is likely to be an overhang on” shares, according to Jefferies analyst Christopher LaFemina, who said the reputations of both BHP and Vale, which have relatively good safety records, would emerge damaged.

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Two dozen missing in vast mudflow of Brazil mine disaster – by Stephen Eisenhamer (Reuters U.S. – November 8, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

MARIANA, BRAZIL – Brazilian authorities late on Saturday were investigating a second suspected death after two dams at a major mine in the country’s southeast burst and unleashed a massive mudflow that wreaked havoc across more than 80 km (50 miles).

A dozen residents of villages downstream from the burst dams remain missing, along with 13 workers from the mine. Officials warned of a higher death toll even as they struggle to find bodies probably swept away by the torrent.

One death from the disaster was confirmed on Friday, and authorities reported the body of someone believed to be a second victim on Saturday evening. A spokesman for the state fire department said they expected to be able to determine on Sunday if the body is that of one of the missing people.

“The death toll will rise for sure,” said Duarte Júnior, mayor of Mariana. “Some people still aren’t accounted for.”

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Brazil community flooded after dam burst at BHP and Vale-owned iron ore mine – by Matt Chambers (The Australian – November 6, 2015)

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

At least 17 people are dead in Brazil following a mudslide unleashed after the collapse of a tailings dam at a mine half owned by BHP Billiton.

More than 50 people were injured, said local fire chief Adao Severino Junior, who added: “The number of missing is going to surpass 40 but that is not official.”

Television footage showed a torrent of industrial muck several hundred metres long that had swamped houses and ripped off their roofs in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.

The structure that failed is a tailings dam, used to hold water and discarded minerals from a nearby iron-ore mine operated by Samarco Mineração, a company owned 50-50 by BHP Billiton (BHP) and Brazil’s Vale.

The village of Bento Rodrigues near the dam was practically buried in mud, the fire chief said.

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Vale runoff saturated school board property for years – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Northern Life – November 02, 2015)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

The Sudbury Catholic District School board property where toxic runoff from Vale’s slag piles allegedly seeped for decades, was often over-saturated, says a former manager who worked at the property.

Denis Faucher retired in 2013, but in October 2012, when a nearby resident reported seeing lime-green-coloured runoff in Nolin Creek, he was the manager of facility services for the Sudbury Catholic District School Board.

The facility services building, and surrounding property, is located at 199 Travers Street, near Vale’s large slag piles that line Big Nickel Road.

Faucher started to work at the facility in the late 1980s, and said even then he noticed coloured runoff coming down from the nearby slag piles.

“Especially in the early years, we always thought it was iron in the water coming through the rock,” he said. “It never dawned on us that it could have been something else.”

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Vale SA investigated for allegedly leaking toxic run-off in Sudbury (Canadian Press/MACLEAN’s Magazine – October 23, 2015 )

http://www.macleans.ca/

Allegations of run-off leaks going back to at least 1963 come following seizure of documents, computers from Vale’s Sudbury offices in early October

Environment Canada is investigating Vale SA’s Sudbury, Ont., smelting operations for allegedly leaking toxic run-off into local waterways since at least 1963.

The allegations are contained in a warrant the government agency used to seize documents, computers and related materials from Vale’s Sudbury offices on Oct. 8 as part of its investigation into potential violations of the Fisheries Act.

In the warrant, Environment Canada accuses the company of allowing “acutely lethal” seepage from the smelter waste piles into water frequented by fish, and of knowing about the leakage for years. The warrant contains allegations not proven in court.

The accusations indicate the seepage started well before Vale took control of the smelter when it acquired Inco Ltd. in 2006 for US$17.6 billion.

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