Vale Tailings Dam at Imminent Risk of Rupture, Authorities Say

  • Report from inspectors points to risk of liquefaction
  • Company says there’s no imminent risk of dam rupture

Recovery and repair crews work near a destroyed Vale SA bridge in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais state, Brazil, in Jan 2020.

Photographer: Victor Moriyama/Bloomberg
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A Vale SA tailings dam near the site of a deadly disaster in 2015 runs the imminent risk of rupture, according to Brazilian authorities.

There’s a “serious and imminent risk of rupture due to liquefaction of the dam structure, with the potential for workers getting buried,” government inspectors said in a report Wednesday.