Data: The numbers from the tragedy in Brumadinho

Conectas has selected some data on Brazil’s worst social and environmental tragedy

One year after the collapse of the tailings dam at the Córrego do Feijão mine, discover what the situation is like in Brumadinho, the stage of Brazil’s worst ever environmental disaster.

The collapse of the B1 dam owned by Vale at its Córrego do Feijão mine in Brumadinho, in the state of Minas Gerais, left at least 270 people dead and another 11 missing. A total of 12 million cubic meters of tailings was spilled. At the time the dam burst, 427 mining company employees were working at the site. 

In July, Vale and the Office of the Public Prosecutor for Labor Issues signed an agreement to compensate the families of employees killed in Brumadinho. It established that spouses or partners, children, mothers and fathers of Vale employees killed in the tragedy would receive R$700,000 each, of which R$500,000 is reparation for moral damages and R$200,000 is a workplace accident insurance payout. Brothers of deceased employees would receive R$150,000 in moral damages and dependent family members would be paid a lifetime monthly income until the age of 75. The agreement was approved in the labor court.

In September, Judge Rodrigo Chaves of the 2nd Civil, Criminal and Sentence Enforcement Court of the Judicial District of Brumadinho, sentenced Vale to pay R$11.8 million to the families of two brothers and a pregnant woman killed in the tragedy.

Two months later, the same judge sentenced the company to pay compensation for moral damages in the amount of R$8.1 million to five members of the same family who lost three close relatives as a result of the dam collapse.

Today, according to information from Vale:

• More than 106,000 people receive monthly emergency aid
• Compensation for individuals and families: 723 agreements, with 2,300 recipients. This compensation is part of the Commitment Agreement signed between Vale and the Minas Gerais State Public Defender’s Office
• Labor compensation: 516 agreements and 1,539 recipients