A tailings dam collapse on Friday afternoon in the town of Brumadinho, in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, has claimed at least 34 lives and left hundreds missing. The exact causes of the incident are unclear, and rescue operations have been underway for the last 24 hours. President Jair Bolsonaro will visit the region on Saturday afternoon and stated that the government would do “everything in [its] power to minimize the damage.”
The catastrophe comes just over three years after the Mariana dam collapse, which saw 50 million cubic meters of tailings empty into the Rio Doce, leaving 19 dead, destroying the nearby town of Bento Rodrigues and causing irreparable environmental damage. The two incidents are linked, as the dams in question were both administered by Vale, Brazil’s largest mining company.
The events of the dam collapse
The collapse occurred around 1 pm on Friday afternoon, as many of the workers on site were having lunch....
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