A dam holding back mining waste from a Brazilian miner is at risk of collapsing, a government audit says. The same company was responsible for two tailings dam collapses since 2015 that unleashed millions of gallons of toxic sludge and killed hundreds of people in Brazil’s southeastern state of Minas Gerais, which has been known worldwide as the Brumadinho Dam Collapse.

   The retired Xingu dam at Alegria iron ore mine in Mariana — the same municipality where a tailings dam collapsed in November 2015 in what’s considered Brazil’s worst environmental disaster to date — is at “serious and imminent risk of rupture by liquefaction,” according to an audit report from a local state organ. The report says the Xingu dam “does not present stability conditions.” “It is, therefore, an extremely serious situation that puts at risk workers who perform activities, access or remain on the crest, on the downstream slopes, in the flood area and in the area on the tailings upstream of the dam,” the document says.

  The ANM (National Mining Agency) rated the Xingu dam’s safety at level 2 in a September 2020 assessment, after requesting the company to improve the structure. The miner has fulfilled part of the request, but has sought a deadline extension for other repair works, without major changes in the structure. In its most recent inspection, ANM identified structural problems where no corrective measures had been implemented. 

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