Vale Says Samarco Dam Break Contained Toxic Elements

By Paul Kiernan 

RIO DE JANEIRO--Brazilian mining giant Vale SA acknowledged for the first time on Friday the presence of toxic elements in a river flooded with mud and mine waste following the disastrous failure of a dam at its joint venture, Samarco Mineração SA.

The admission comes two days after a United Nations report alleging "high levels of toxic heavy metals and other toxic chemicals" in the river and criticizing the mining companies and the Brazilian government for their "defensive" public response to the incident.

As many as 12 people died when the sludge inundated towns in the area. At least 11 people are still missing.

Samarco, Vale and its joint-venture partner BHP Billiton Ltd. say the tsunami of mud unleashed by the Nov. 5 dam break comprised water, mud, iron-oxide and sand, none of which are harmful. In a news conference Friday, Vale executives continued to stress that was the case. But Vania Somavilla, Vale's executive director of human relations, health and safety, sustainability and energy, said the mud may have upset toxic elements settled in the bed of the Rio Doce, or along its banks.

The Brazilian federal government, citing "more than 40" water samples taken since Samarco's dam collapsed, reiterated this week that "there was not an increase in the presence of heavy metals in the water and sediments."

But tests by a municipal water agency along the river, which were sent to a U.N. special rapporteur on hazardous wastes, showed high levels of toxic heavy metals and other toxic chemicals on Nov. 10.

Also this week, the Minas Gerais state institute of water management, known as IGAM, published the results of its own, more extensive tests on the Rio Doce, after prosecutors ordered it to do so.

The findings? Levels of arsenic, lead, aluminum, chromium, nickel and cadmium many times higher than the legal maximums at various points along the river. The tests were taken between Nov. 7 and Nov. 12, as the mud from Samarco's dam crawled downstream.

Write to Paul Kiernan at [e-mail]

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November 27, 2015 12:08 ET (17:08 GMT)

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