(Bloomberg) -- Vale SA said it was conducting additional checks on a dam in southeast Brazil after a routine inspection identified surface cracks, but so far has found the structure to be in stable condition.
The world’s No. 2 iron ore producer said in a securities filling on Saturday that the operations were underway at the Forquilha III dam at the Fabrica mine in the city of Ouro Preto, which is located in Brazil’s mineral-rich state of Minas Gerais.
The Forquilha III dam is at emergency level 3, the highest level among Vale’s dams, and is being “permanently monitored,” the company wrote in the filing. “Vale reinforces that the structure’s stability conditions remain unchanged.”
The company said it was in touch with authorities as it undertook an investigation and corrective measures at the dam, and was committed to reaching the “the reduction of its emergency level.”
Vale added it had a “downstream containment structure” in place and had evacuated communities in the “self-rescue zone.”
The Brumadinho dam disaster in 2019, when a Vale tailings dam collapsed in Minas Gerais, left hundreds dead and spewed toxic waste in the area. A separate tragedy occurred in the same state in 2015 when a dam broke at a mining project owned by BHP Group and Vale in the city of Mariana, leaving more than a dozen dead.
--With assistance from Mariana Durao.
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