Vale's attempt to make amends for deadly Brazilian dam disaster met with anger

Residents devastatedby a mining waste dam burst in Brazil that may have killed more than300 people reacted on Thursday with indifference and in manycases anger to miner Vale SA's pledges to payvictims' families and improve safety.

"Too Late" read newspaper Estado de Minas in the Brazilianstate of Minas Gerais, after Vale, the world's largest iron ore miner, said it would take up to 10 per cent of its productionoffline and spend fivebillion reais (around $1.8 billion Cdn) to decommission 10 dams like the one that collapsed at its Corregodo Feijao mine last Friday.

With 110 people confirmed dead and another 238 missing and presumed dead,according to firefighters' count on Thursday evening, the tailings dam collapse in the town of Brumadinho may be Brazil'sdeadliest ever mine disaster.

In recent days, Vale has vowed tokeep paying taxes on the paralyzed mine and donate 100,000 reais($36,000 Cdn) to the family of each victim.

For some people mourning loved ones, those pledges lookedinadequate.

'It's shameful'

"It's shameful for Vale," said Dilson Menezes de Oliveira,58, who stood looking at the spot where his 32-year-old cousin lies buried after the inn where he was staying was engulfedby a wave of mud and toxic waste.

"So many innocent people died. And now this compensation of100,000 reais it's nothing."

On Thursday, state labour courts froze more than 800 millionreais ($288 million Cdn) of Vale's assets as compensation forvictims. That followed court orders over the weekend freezing11.8 billion reais ($4.2 billion Cdn) in assets to cover rescueefforts and damages. The company, which also operates mines in Canada,had around 24 billion reais incash and equivalents at the end of the third quarter.

A ministerial task force convened by President JairBolsonaro began drawing up a unified legislative plan to improve safety, oversight and the licensing of dams.

A person with direct knowledge of the proceedings said theproposals would likely include executive orders and bills in congress and take at least seven to 10 days to prepare.

Health risks

Residents in the devastated town of Brumadinho were stilllearning of the fallout from the deadly mud flow.

Minas Gerais'sstate government said on Thursday that initialtests of the Paraopeba River, which was contaminated by thetoxic mud, indicated that "the water poses risks to human andanimal health."

It added that locals should not use Paraopeba River waterfor any purpose.

On Wednesday, United Nations human rights experts urged anofficial investigation into the incident. Federal and state prosecutors have already said they are seeking to make thematter a criminal case.

Three Vale employees and two contractors were arrested on Tuesday.

After a meeting with Brazil's top prosecutor, Vale chiefexecutive Fabio Schvartsman told journalists that he had no reason to think the company's executives would go to prison.

Schvartsman said the company was focused on paying familiesas soon as possible, and he had also discussed environmentalissues with federal prosecutors. He has said the miner built itsfacilities to code, and equipment had shown the dam was stable.

Chief financial officer Luciano Siani said Vale planned topay some 80 million reais to the municipality of Brumadinho overthe next two years, in lieu of tax payments on the miningoperations that had been suspended.

In another setback for Vale, the city of Mangaratiba, in Riode Janeiro, has temporarily shuttered the company's Ilha Guaiba(TIG) iron ore terminal, CBN radio reported on Thursday.According to the report, Vale was also fined 20 million reaisfor failing to submit environmental licences.

The company said it had all necessary licences andwouldtake all legal measures needed to resume operations there.