After the disastrous dam break in an iron ore mine in Brazil, the forces have ceased their search for victims for the time being. There is the risk of a second embankment collapse at the mine in the Federal state of Minas Gerais. On Sunday morning, evacuated the fire service military several places in the Region. 24,000 people were brought to safety. It is the dam of a smaller water reservoir to the mine with a capacity of approximately one Million cubic meters. The pool is now emptied.

Tjerk Brühwiller

Rapporteur for Latin America with headquarters in São Paulo.

F. A. Z.

The hope of finding more Survivors was unlikely anyway. The dam failure was triggered on Friday by an avalanche of several million cubic meters of mud, the entrainment everything in it’s path. The authorities have confirmed so far, about three dozen fatalities. More than 250 people are still missing. It is assumed that they were buried under the mud masses.

It was hard to find Survivors, said the Governor of the state of Minas Gerais, Romeu Zema, on the Friday evening. In the case of most of the Victims are mine workers. In the state of Minas Gerais, a state of emergency was proclaimed.

The justice blocked the money in the Vale for compensation payments

The affected Mine owned by the Brazilian company Vale, one of the world’s largest mining companies. Fábio Schvartsman, President of Vale, spoke of a “terrible human tragedy”. However, it is likely to be, according to Schvartsman, the damage to the environment within limits, as the tailings basin for three years, inactive and the overburden material was relatively dry. On the causes of the dam collapse is currently unknown,investigations have been initiated. The Brazilian justice blocked work on Saturday at the Vale, five billion Real (around 1.3 billion dollars) for rescue and compensation payments. However, the financial damage could be far higher. On wall street the shares of the Brazilian mining company, fell on Friday to eight percent.