Brazilian miner Vale must pay first fine of $ 66.5 million for Minas Gerais tragedy

The Brazilian government imposed a first fine of R $ 250 million (equivalent to approximately $ 66.5 million) at Vale, for offenses related to the rupture of a mining dam in Minas Gerais, which according to the last balance sheets left 50 dead and around 300 missingofficial sources informed.

The Ministry of the Environment first indicated that it had given "permission to apply fines", without specifying the amount. Later, Minister Ricardo Salles declared to the AFP that this fine "was already applied" and that it amounted to 250 million reais.

However, the government of Minas Gerais is preparing another finehe said to the AFP a person in charge of the environmental zone of this state.

The justice of Minas had already decreed the blockade of Vale's bank accounts for R $ 1,000 million (USD 265 million) to compensate the victims.

"The people involved in this tragedy will be punished in an exemplary manner.All the legal measures have already been adopted, billions of reais have been blocked, so that the punishment is as rigorous as possible," said the governor of Minas to the press. Romeu Zema.

Zema said that "the full force of the law will be applied" against those responsible for the disaster. "We can not want the death penalty, because in Brazil, the law does not provide for it", but "what the law provides will be done," he said.

The volume of mud that buried the vicinity of the mine is much lower than that near 50 million cubic meters released by the breach of the Fundao Dam in November 2015, in the municipality of Mariana, about 120 km from Brumadinho.

This disaster left 19 dead, a balance which, according to all indications, will be much lower than that of Friday. On the other hand, its impact on the environment has been devastating., as the waste stream has reached the sea along the Rio Doce through two Brazilian states.

Brazilian firefighters are working this Saturday in areas where there may be survivors of the tragedy, who has so far left ten dead and 354 missing, although there is no details about the deceased's figures.

However, hopes were weaker and weaker.

A spokesman for the fire department reported in the early afternoon that all the occupants of a bus where he was expected to find people alive were dead, without specifying the number.

The searches are ongoing in a community, a building and a locomotive.

The disaster occurred around 13:00 local time (15:00 GMT) Friday in the municipality of Brumadinho60 km from Belo Horizonte, burying a large part of the facilities of the Córrego do Feijão complex, owned by Vale, a huge mining company.

The governor of the state, Romeu Zema said Friday night that the chances of saving the survivors were "minimal".

Estevo noted that some 140 soldiers will work "without interruption" search for the survivors and recover the lifeless bodies, with whom the work "will be extended for weeks so that we can give news to all the families of the missing".