This chapter examines three major mining disasters of recent years: a chemical spill at a copper mine, in Sonora, Mexico, in 2014; the Bento Rodrigues tailings dam disaster, in Minas Gerais, Brazil, in 2015; and the Brumadinho dam disaster, also in Minas Gerais, Brazil, in 2019. It looks at the failure to repair the damage caused and provide justice to people who lost homes, loved ones, and livelihoods. It argues that in the absence of any meaningful reform of the mining industry, and given that those responsible have enjoyed near total impunity, such disasters are likely to recur.
‘When they told us the dam had broken we knew something was heading our way, but we were expecting water. What came was something from another world. A monster. I saw it.’
– Marino D’Angelo Junior, a dairy farmer from Minas Gerais, Brazil, affected by the Bento Rodrigues tailings dam disaster of 2015
‘Having been in Brumadinho for three or four days, it was clear that everyone – the whole town – even those who weren’t directly affected, were completely in trauma … People are so shocked, and so traumatized, they are just trying to get by one day at a time, to get through the next conversation.’
– Andrew Hickman, trustee at London Mining Network who visited Brumadinho following the tailings dam disaster in 2019
‘With everyone we’ve talked to, we’ve been very clear: it will happen again. Bento wasn’t the first and it won’t be the last. And Brumadinho won’t be the last.’
– Mônica dos Santos, a lawyer from Bento Rodrigues who was displaced by the disaster
Damage in the Brazilian village of Bento Rodrigues after the 2015 Samarco tailings dam disaster. Credit: Romerito Pontes 2015 / CC BY 2.0
Many communities remain unsafe and uncompensated in Brumadinho, Brazil, two years after the worst dam disaster in Latin American history at the Córrego do Feijão iron ore mine in south-eastern Brazil on 25 January, 2018, which left up to 270 people dead.
LAB's Tom Gatehouse talks to those affected by recent tailings dams disasters in Brazil
On 25 January last year, a massive tailings dam collapsed at...
On 25 January 2019 a huge tailings dam at the Feijão iron ore mine, near Brumadinho, in Minas Gerais, Brazil, collapsed suddenly and catastrophically....
In April this year, a delegation of representatives from mining-affected communities in Minas Gerais, Brazil came to London, on a mission to raise awareness of abuses committed by transnational mining companies – including two with connections to the UK.
Cárdenas, P. (n.d.,b) ‘La peor tragedia de la industria minera en México’. Fundar. Available at: <http://riosonora.fundar.org.mx> [Accessed 16 February 2022].
Cáritas Minas Gerais (2019) Cáritas Minas Gerais in Common House Care. Facing the mining model and defending the social and environmental rights. Belo Horizonte, MG.
Centro Alternativo de Formação Popular Rosa Fortini (2021) ‘Justiça Federal abre o Sistema Indenizatório Simplificado para todas as cidades atingidas e prorroga prazo de fechamento’. [online] Available at: <https://www.centrorosafortini.com.br/noticia.php?id=390> [Accessed 16 February 2022].
Comités de Cuenca Río Sonora and PODER (2018) Derrame de 40 millones de litros de solución de cobre acidulado a los ríos Bacánuchi y Sonora provenientes de las instalaciones de la mina Buenavista del Cobre, S.A. de C.V., subsidiaria de Grupo México. [online] PODER. Available at: <https://poderlatam.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Sonora_Informe_May_2018.pdf> [Accessed 16 February 2022].
Díaz-Caravantes, R. E., Durazo-Gálvez, F. M., Moreno Vázquez, J. L., Duarte Tagles, H. and Pineda Pablos, N. (2021) ‘Las plantas potabilizadoras en el río Sonora: una revisión de la recuperación del desastre’, Región y Sociedad, 33, e1416. Available at: <https://regionysociedad.colson.edu.mx:8086/index.php/rys/article/view/1416/1746#toc>
Tokarnia, M. (2020) ‘Tragédia de Mariana faz 5 anos e população ainda aguarda reparações’. yahoo! notícias. Available at: [Accessed 16 February 2022].
