Vale has another $763 million in assets frozen after court decision
Mining giant Vale reported it is aware that court authorities in Minas Gerais have ruled the freezing of assets of another $763 million in its bank accounts. Since the tailings dam in Brumadinho ruptured two months ago, the company has had approximately $4.1 billion blocked.
The amount should ensure reimbursements may be made for the losses facing the people affected by the evacuations conducted and those yet to take place due to the collapse risk facing the Sul Superior dam, in Barão de Cocais, also in Minas Gerais state. Over 400 people have been removed from their homes.
The move comes to grant a petition filed last Saturday (Mar. 23) by Minas Gerais prosecutors one day after the company followed the recommendation from the National Mining Agency (ANM) to raise the security level at the Sul Superior dam from two to three.
On the occasion, Vale announced that the measure was a precaution taken after an autonomous auditor reported that the structure was showing “critical stability conditions.”
Level three indicates imminent risk of rupture. The change led to sirens going off in the city for the second time this year.
On February 8, the sirens had rung when the security level went from one to two, requiring hundreds of people to leave their homes in the area below the dam that would be flooded in less than 30 minutes, or located within less than 10 km. Due to the evacuation, $13 million was blocked from Vale’s accounts, which raises the freezing linked to Barão de Cocais to $776 million.
Since the Brumadinho disaster, which occurred on January 25 also in Minas Gerais, when a dam controlled by Vale at Mina do Feijão collapsed, the company has brought its structures back under scrutiny and activated level two for some of them, leading to evacuations in a number of cities in the state, where nearly a thousand people have been taken from their homes. This, however, is the first time since the tragedy a dam is brought up to level three.
Auditing
Another decision granted led to the freezing of another $31 millions from Vale. The funds will ensure independent technical auditing can be paid for, which should encompass 12 units belonging to Vale.
In a motion submitted to a Minas Gerais court, prosecutors accuse the company of not complying orders to have auditing carried out.
