Five days after a dam collapse at a Brazilian mine, residents were mourning Wednesday the nearly 360 people killed and missing — as well the river…
Five days after a dam collapse at a Brazilian mine, residents were mourning Wednesday the nearly 360 people killed and missing — as well the river they live alongside, which is dying from spreading toxic, muddy waste.
Helton, one resident, said his 28-year-old wife and his 35-year-old sister both worked at the facility, owned by Vale, the Brazilian company that is the world’s biggest iron-ore miner.
They are among the 276 missing, presumed dead, likely to swell the list of 84 confirmed fatalities.
„I asked them to leave. And they said no, because they needed the work,“ said Helton — who only gave his first name — adding that rumors of perilous conditions had circulated before the disaster.
Many in and around Brumadinho, the nearest town to the mine, worked for Vale. The community was essentially a company town, tied to what was by far the biggest employer in the area.
They also live in the shadow of multiple dams that have been used by Vale’s operation.
„They knew it was ging to break. They knew. The boys who worked there were afraid to complain, or they would be fired,“ said Vanderlei Alves, a 52-year-old driver who lost many of his friends.
Some 276 people are missing, presumed dead, following the disaster at the mine owned by Vale, the Brazilian company that is the world’s biggest iron-ore miner
Mauro Pimentel, AFP
The tailings dam, used to store muddy, mineral-laced mining waste, ruptured on Friday, sending 13 million tons of sludge across the mine’s administrative and cafeteria buildings, where employees were packed in for lunch, and down into surrounding countryside and the Paraopeba river.
