By Gail Moss2021-01-26T16:11:00+00:00
The Church of England Pensions Board (CEPB) and the Council on Ethics of the Swedish National Pension Funds have led investors in setting a 2030 deadline for reforms to the mining sector.
The announcement came on the second anniversary of the Brumandinho disaster, when a tailings dam near a mine in south-east Brazil collapsed, killing 270 people, and creating a river of iron ore waste which contaminated the countryside.
The disaster prompted the formation of the Mining & Tailings Safety Initiative (MTSI), a group of over a hundred investors in the extractive industries with a total $20trn (€16.3trn) in assets under management, who seek to precipitate change within the sector via engagement with companies and affected communities.
Two years after Brazil mining disaster, no closure for victims or Vale 25 Jan 2021 / 23:03 H.
By Leonardo Benassatto
BRUMADINHO, Brazil, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Families of the roughly 270 victims of a Vale SA mining dam collapse in Brazil held protests and vigils on the disaster s second anniversary on Monday, raising pressure on the company as it struggles to settle legal claims.
Firefighters are still searching for the bodies of 11 victims presumed lost in a torrent of mining sludge that buried a full cafeteria at lunchtime in the town of Brumadinho, Minas Gerais state, on Jan. 25, 2019.
Excavators are digging through the muck at the site, with trucks hauling away loads of waste that firefighters say is up to 15 meters deep.
From ‘pushback’ to pushing ahead How the Brumadinho disaster brought miners onboard with tailings reform. January 6, 2021
Right: A fines retention dyke completed in January 2020 at Vale’s Corrego do Feijao iron ore operation in Brazil. Credit: Vale
In 2017, GRID-Arendal, an environmental centre based in Norway and a partner of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), published Mine Tailings Storage: Safety is No Accident. The report called for the development of a global standard covering the construction and operation of tailings dams, a global insurance scheme, and more oversight and transparency around tailings.
While it was written in response to recent tailings failures, including Mount Polley in British Columbia and Samarco in Brazil (which killed 19 people), the mining sector was resistant at the time to many of the recommendations, says Elaine Baker, one of the authors of the report and director of the GRID-Arendal offi
Church, ethics group start initiative to monitor mining dam safety
Bloomberg
Workers operate a heavy equipment to clear debris and mud as part of the recovery effort after the Vale SA Corrego do Feijao tailings dam collapse in Brumadinho, Brazil, in 2019.
European investors are partnering to implement a global tailings dam standard for mining companies they own through the creation of an independent institute.
The £2.8 billion ($3.7 billion) Church of England Pensions Board, London, and the Council on Ethics of the Swedish National Pension Funds, Stockholm, announced Friday they are joining together to launch the institute.
Following the 2019 Brumadinho tailings dam disaster in Brazil in which an earthen dam was breached, resulting in 270 deaths, investors have engaged with mining companies to develop a standard practice in efforts to avoid waste management disasters at mining sites, according to their websites. The standard was developed by investors in August, and the investo
Partnership to Support Global Tailings Standard miragenews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from miragenews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.