Hammer Drops on Vale Employees - (Mining)

INDUSTRIALS Hammer Drops on Vale Employees Ibama from Brasil, Brumadinho, Minas Gerais (47021723582), CC BY-SA 2.0 Yesterday, prosecutors for the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais charged the former CEO of mining company Vale with homicide.  On Jan. 25, 2019, a Vale dam collapsed, triggering a mudslide that killed 270 people. It was the worst environmental disaster in Brazil’s history.  The former CEO, Fabio Schvartsman, is the highest-level exec to be charged. Prosecutors also slapped homicide charges on 10 other former Vale workers, plus five employees of TUV SUD, a German auditor that inspected the dam.  Prosecutors said both TUV SUD and Vale were "fully aware" of the dam's safety risks. TUV SUD said it was cooperating with authorities.  Big picture: With the tragedy's one-year anniversary coming up, the Brazilian public is looking for accountability, especially since this wasn’t the first disaster involving the company. In 2015, a mining dam owned by a Vale joint venture collapsed, resulting in 19 deaths.