Mining tragedy in Brazil: five engineers arrested say dam is safe

Brazilian authorities ordered Tuesday holding of five engineers in investigations of the mining tragedy in the state of Minas Gerais that until now 65 dead and 279 missing.

The public prosecutor and the police launched Tuesday the "operation" for investigate the criminal liability of the rupture of the existing dams in the mine Córrego do Feijao, maintained by Vale ", indicated the public prosecutor of Minas Gerais in a note.

All were arrested this morning, two in Sao Paulo and three others in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais.

Three of the detainees were Vale employees "directly involved and responsible for the mining company and its license".

While others two works for the German company TÜV SÜD which recently certified the stability of the dam that erupted on Friday, causing an avalanche of mud and mine waste that devastated in a matter of seconds the whole complex of Vale and part of the city of Brumadinho.

The German company TÜV SÜD guaranteed its stability in September 2018. On Saturday, TÜV SÜD confirmed that it carried out this inspection, stating that "according to the elements known to date, no defects were found"

"The prison has been decreed for a period of 30 days and all prisoners will be heard by the public prosecutor in Minas Gerais," the statement said.

Search and seizure orders were also issued to gather information on the case and investigate the causes of the disaster.

In another statement, Vale said he "fully cooperates with the authorities and will continue to contribute to the investigations and unconditional support provided to affected families".

Continue search to Brumadinho

Rescue teams concentrated Monday in areas where the collective was immersed in the mud and in the cafeteria of Vale, in which company employees ate lunch at the time the dike broke out.

The mud has up to 8 meters deep in some partsand to avoid drowning, rescuers must walk carefully by the edges or crawl slowly.

The coverage of mining waste has also raised fears of widespread contamination and degradation of the environment.

According to Vale's website, waste they are composed mainly of sand, which is not toxic. But a UN report revealed that the same disaster occurred in Brazil in 2015 "contained high levels of toxic heavy metals"

The mine, owned by Vale and Australian mining company BHP Billiton, collapsed in the city of Mariana, Minas Gerais, killing 19 people and displacing hundreds of people. Around 250,000 people ended up without drinking water and thousands of fish are dead. It is estimated that about 60 million cubic meters of waste flooded the nearby rivers and eventually dumped into the Atlantic Ocean.

The mining company sinks into the stock market

Vale SA is the world's largest producer of iron ore, raw material for steelmaking. US stocks of the company they fell 18% on Monday at the New York Stock Exchange. On the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange fall was 24.52%during the first session since the tragedy of Brumadinho. rupture of a dam of his property, which made Friday dozens of deaths in Minas Gerais (southeast).

Since Friday, Vale's market capitalization of $ 78.7 billion last week, has lost $ 19.2 billion.

Over the weekend, courts have frozen approximately $ 3 million worth of Vale's badets to compensate victims.