Fonte: Bnamericas | Data: 04/02/2021
Brazilian mining giant Vale reached a compensation deal wit the state of Minas Gerais for vitctims of the Brumadinho tailings dam collapse.
Representing the largest set lement of this kind in Latin America, Vale will pay 37.7bn reais (US$7bn) in compensations to the local authorities, a value that is higher than its US$5.8bn cape x plan for this year.
“I believe that companies will have to redouble security measures because this figure shows that incidents like this [Brumadinho] generate a very high costs,” Valdir Farias, executi ve director at mining consultancy Fioito Consultoria, told BNamericas. “It is still difficult to know if this will guide all other cases like this one from now on in the courts, but it sets a high benchmark in financial terms.”
The Brumadinho dam collapse occurred in January 2019 and became Brazil’s worst mining disaster, killing at least 259 people and causing widespread environmental damage.
Since last year, the Minas Gerais auth oriti es and Vale’s repr esenta tives had been i negotiati ons over financial compensation, and the miner initially offered to pay 21bn reais while the state government demanded 54bn reais .
The compensation will be distributed by the state to support families of the victims of the dam collapse, the affected local communities, and also to mitigate the environmental damage and repair infrastructure .
“We will use this indemnity, reparation, for the people of Minas Gerais and not for the state coffers. We will continue to be a state with terrible financial difficulties, but the people of Minas Gerais will receive the legacy,” said state governor Romeu Zema in a statement.
“We have now begun a new challenge, to start these works that will generate 360,000 jobs in the coming months and years,” Zema said in regards to the major negative impact that the disaster caused for the state’s economy.
As the agreed compensation was higher than initially projected, Vale said it will make an additional provision of 19.Sbn reais in the 2020 financial results, which will be released in the coming weeks.
“Vale is committed to fully repair and compensate the damage caused by the tragedy in Brumadinho and to increasingly contribute to the improvement and development of the communities in which we operate,” said CEO Eduardo Bartolomeo.
The high compensation to be paid by Vale did not cause major alarm among analysts.
The company’s well-adjusted net debt allows the firm to offer the provisioned amounts without major complica ti ons. We classify the agreement as positive for the company,” llan Arbetman, an analyst at local brokerage Ativa lnvestimentos wrote in a research repo rt.
