NEWS

Mining $1.2 billion deal and urgency of mining waste legislation

J&F Investimentos SA, owned by the Batista family, emerged as the surprise buyer of some of Vale SA’s operations in Brazil. The assets include manganese and iron-ore mines, as well as logistics operations, worth a total of $1.2 billion including debt. This has been the main news of the sector in the national and international media this year.
However, another piece of news also deserves attention: The National Mining Agency (ANM) has recently (31/03) held a public hearing with representatives of the mining sector to discuss environmental and population safety in the state of Minas Gerais, due to the risks caused by the segment. Currently, the agency has identified a series of mining tailings piles in the state and warns of a possible disaster if these residues collapse, directly affecting the environment and the population living around the operations. The public hearing of the Environment and Sustainable Development Commission of the Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais (ALMG) in partnership with the ANM opened the debate for the need for changes in relation to legislation regarding mining waste and served for the agency to make public their fear about the possible collapse of tailings piles across the state, thus putting the population and the environment at risk. We all remember the accidents in Minas Gerais due to the collapse of mine tailing dams, at Mariana (2015: 19 people killed and 33 million cubic metres of waste material released, which pulsed 650 kilometres down the Doce River until it emptied into the Atlantic, 17 days later, and choked the river, killing fishing grounds and poisoning the surrounding vegetation) and Brumadinho (2019: as many as 350 people buried alive under a torrential reddish-brown wave of 13 million cubic metres of rock and mud, the deadliest mining disaster in decades).