Dam bursts kills several people in southeastern Brazil

A dam burst at a Brazil iron ore mine is reportedly thought to have killed at least 15 people on Thursday, submerging homes and vehicle in a nearby town.

One person is confirmed dead, a civil defense official said.

Mine operator Samarco’s chief executive officer said a tremor in the vicinity of the mine may have caused the dams to burst, but that it was too early to establish the exact cause. Bento Rodrigues is about 93 miles (150 km) southeast of Belo Horizonte, Brazil’s third-largest city and the capital of the mining state of Minas Gerais. “It is dark. There is a lot of mud”, Severino said.

The rescue teams continued the search even after nightfall.

The mudslide flattened Bento Rodrigues, a village of a few 600 people near the southeastern city of Mariana in the historic mining region of Minas Gerais.

Police, firefighters and local officials said they could not confirm any reported death tolls or victims.

The Thursday afternoon rupture unleashed a mix of water and ore mining residue on a small village seven kilometres downhill.

The dam contained tailings, a mining waste product of metal fillings, water and sometimes chemicals. The town of 400 people was flooded with water and red toxic mud from the mining waste site.

A spokesman for Vale declined to comment, pointing to a statement by Samarco that said the venture was prioritizing helping people and mitigating damage to the environment and that it wasn’t yet possible to confirm the cause of the incident.

Shares in BHP Billiton Plc (LON:BLT) have opened around four percent lower in today’s London trading following a serious incident at a Brazilian iron-ore operation the company jointly owns.

The dam is run by Samarco Minercao SA, a joint venture between BHP and Brazilian miner Vale (VALE5.SA).

As rescue workers evacuated remaining survivors, the mining company’s president worked to dispel fears that the mud contained toxins that could contaminate the land and rivers.

“When day does break (in Brazil) our biggest imperative is to secure the safety of the community and obviously our workforce and then to start planning how we can restore the community to health in the wake of this awful accident”, he said. The state’s name translates literally as “General Mines” and is home to vast open iron ore extraction operations, vital to Brazil’s commodity-dependent economy.

“The dam failure is a major concern and could have a material impact on the near-term production outlook for Samarco”, analysts at the firm wrote in a report on Friday.