BHP, Vale joint venture boss in Brazil ‘environmental crime’ probe
BHP Billiton has confirmed operations at its troubled Samarco iron ore joint venture will likely not restart this year.
BHP Billiton has confirmed operations at its troubled Samarco iron ore joint venture will likely not restart this year.
The miner, which controls Samarco with Brazil’s Vale, said the process of receiving regulatory approval for a restart of operations would take an extended period in the wake of last November’s tragic tailings dam collapse.
“Samarco has confirmed it is unlikely to have in place the necessary approvals to restart its operations in this calendar year,” BHP said in a statement.
“Samarco makes an important contribution to the national economy and the livelihoods of thousands of people but Samarco’s operations will restart only when it is safe to do so, and when all regulatory approvals are granted and accepted by the relevant authorities and communities.”
The miner said discussions with Samarco employees were underway as it looked to cut the workforce in light of the lack of production, with about 40 per cent of the workforce expected to accept voluntary redundancies.
The news came in a broad update on the Samarco operations, with BHP’s chief commercial officer Dean Dalla Valle saying the firm remained strong in its belief a framework agreement agreed in March was the best way forward despite legal cases threatening to derail that plan and raise BHP’s recovery costs.
“There is still much to be done to rebuild and restore but we believe that working with Vale, Samarco and the Brazilian authorities we will be able to deliver on the commitments under the agreement and we will do what’s right,” he said.
“We believe the Framework Agreement sets out the best way forward to respond to this tragedy and BHP Billiton Brasil will continue to consult with affected communities and authorities and provide updates on the progress.”
It comes as Brazilian federal prosecutors say they have opened an investigation into alleged environmental crimes by Roberto Carvalho, chief executive of BHP Billiton co-owned company Samarco Minerao SA, over the deadly dam burst.
According to a statement released on by prosecutors, Samarco has failed to fully implement emergency precautionary measures ordered by Brazil’s environmental protection agency Ibama in the wake of the October 2015 tailings dam burst.
In what has been billed the worst environmental disaster in Brazil’s history, the flood of iron-rich mud killed 19 people, devastated several towns and polluted hundreds of kilometres of rivers in Brazil’s Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo states.
The opening of an investigation is the latest setback for plans to reopen Samarco’s operations, restore lost jobs in the region and help it raise cash for an estimated 20 billion-real ($A8.06 million) clean-up plan.
Brazilian prosecutors have attacked the clean-up plan, agreed to with the federal government in March, as too small and lacking specifics. Samarco’s mine is not expected to reopen before mid 2017.
“The omissive acts of the chief executive could be categorised as environmental crimes,” the prosecutors said in the statement.
Samarco officials did not immediately respond to a request for comments from the company and Mr Carvalho.
According to Ibama and the prosecutors, Samarco failed to properly contain 24.8 million cubic metres of mine tailings — enough to fill 10,000 Olympic swimming pools — that remain spread over the disaster area and have not been flushed away by rains or floods.
The amount represents more than three-quarters of the total amount of muddy mine tailings that spilled out of the broken dam.
The containment structures built by Samarco are insufficient, the prosecutors said, and will allow 2.8 million cubic metres of muddy tailings to be swept into rivers downstream by as early as March 2017.
Of the 11 measures ordered on Samarco by Ibama, four were partially implemented and the rest were totally ignored, prosecutors said.
They added that Vale and BHP are considered co-responsible for the disaster as owners of the company.
AAP