Samarco

Samarco SA
Sociedade Anônima
Industry Mining
Founded 1977 (1977)
Headquarters Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
Area served
Minas Gerais
Espírito Santo
Key people
Ricardo Vescovi (president)
Products Iron ore pellets
Owner Vale (50%)
BHP Billiton (50%)
Number of employees
approx. 2000[1] (2009)
Slogan Portuguese: Desenvolvimento com Envolvimento ("Development with involvement")
Website www.samarco.com.br

Samarco Mineração S.A. is a Brazilian mining company founded in 1977. It is currently a joint-venture between Vale and the English-Australian BHP Billiton, each one holding 50% of the company's stocks.

Structure

Samarco is hosted in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais. It has offices and mining facilities in Mariana and Ouro Preto, as well as in cities of Espírito Santo, such as Anchieta, which hosts the Ponta Ubu unity. 

Environmental disaster

Further information: Bento Rodrigues dam disaster
A village flooded in the Bento Rodrigues dam disaster (2015).

On 5 November 2015, two dams in Mariana owned by Samarco that contained by-products of iron mining collapsed.[2] The accident caused many casualties in the district of Bento Rodrigues and its surroundings. The mix of contaminated water and mud has flowed to nearby rivers, including the Rio Doce, an important river for the southeast regions of Brazil. The water contamination lead to suspension of water supply in several cities that depend on the water of the Doce River. This incident has been considered as the biggest environmental accident in the history of Minas Gerais. [3]

As a consequence of the disaster, the Brazilian government suspended the company's activities. [4]

“ We had a tragic event. Samarco is also involved and we are very supportive and suffered with everything that happened. I do not think it is the case of an apology, I find it appropriate to clearly see what happened.[5] „
~ Kleber Terra, director of operations and infrastructure of Samarco

In Brazil, Samarco/Vale is involved in the financing of dozens of political campaigns in numbers that reach R$ 80 million just during the 2014 general elections, and many of these same politicians are now tasked to investigate the company's responsibilities on the disaster and set the amount of fines.[6][7]

Notes and references

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, April 30, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.