A year ago, a Brazilian mining dam burst, forever burying a town. Now executives face homicide charg

A man looks over the Paraopeba River, fouled by mud and waste after a mining dam collapsed in Brumadinho, Brazil, in January 2019. (Antonio Lacerda / EPA/Shutterstock)

By SABRINA VALLE BLOOMBERG
JAN. 25, 2020 5 AM

Exactly one year ago Saturday, a Brazilian dam operated by iron ore miner Vale gave way to a tsunami of 9.7 million cubic meters of mining sludge that buried part of a town and killed 270 people.

In the days, weeks and months since Jan. 25, 2019, the world’s largest iron ore miner has made progress in undoing some — but not all — of the damage done when the dam burst.

Its chief executive stepped down. (He was charged with homicide this week by local prosecutors.) Vale’s stock price has recovered, and output is on its way back.

. . .

People who were in the city of Brumadinho on the day of the disaster, and those who have visited since, struggle to find words to describe the devastation in a way the outside world can grasp. It is, even to those who lived through the tragedy, beyond understanding.

More:
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-01-25/vale-brumadinho-brazil-mining-dam-disaster