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Photos of the victims of Brumadinho (archive image): Almost three years after the dam collapse, some bodies have still not been recovered
Photo: CRISTIANE MATTOS / REUTERS
Brazilian mining company Vale expects to pay 9 billion reais ($1.65 billion) in reparations in 2022 in connection with the Brumadinho dam breach.
Marcelo Klein, director of recovery and development, told Reuters on Friday.
This amount does not include the amount the company will spend on individual compensation.
This is still being negotiated.
In January 2019, after a dam burst, a toxic mudslide poured out of the softened dam of an iron ore mine from Vale over the town of Brumadinho.
The accident killed 270 people and devastated forests, rivers and communities in the area.
TÜV Süd in court in Munich
One of the company's top priorities this year is finding the bodies of the last victims of the dam breach.
"We have to work on rebuilding the shattered relationship of trust," said Marcelo Klein in a video interview.
Therefore, Vale will not only pay compensation, but also participate in the development of the regions in which the group is active.
Since 2019, the company has paid around 18 billion reais ($3.3 billion) in reparations and compensation for social and environmental damage.
In addition, almost 12,000 people received individual compensation payments.
Since the end of September 2021, the dam disaster has also been dealt with before the Munich district court.
The city of Brumadinho and the family of an engineer from Vale who died in the dam collapse are demanding compensation of half a million euros from TÜV Süd.
Months before the collapse, TÜV Süd engineers had certified the dam as safe, although they apparently had serious doubts about its stability.
Since then, the question has been whether the examiners turned a blind eye to keep lucrative orders from Vale.
che/Reuters
