Brazil's Costly Mining Failures Tied to Cheap Waste Storage
- Two dams that collapsed used tailings to build embankments
- After second disaster, Vale abandons mines using the system
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The deadly collapse of a Vale SA tailings dam in Brazil is serving as a wake-up call for an industry that regularly cuts costs by storing mining waste in the cheapest possible way.
The slurry of ground rock and effluents left over after companies extract marketable minerals from the ground has been stored for decades in massive ponds held back by embankments or dams. Their safety, though, depends very much on the design of the ponds, and on the cost of building them.