São Paulo — Heavy rains in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state that are causing landslides and road closures in the region are also affecting the operations of Usiminas (USIM5) , Vale (VALE3) and CSN (CSNA3), and which have forced the the three companies to monitor risks to dams as water levels rise.
Usiminas has halted the operations of its subsidiary Mineração Usiminas (Musa), attributing the stoppage to “intense rainfall in the region of Itatiaiuçu, at levels significantly higher than the historical average”.
For its part, Vale has partially halted train services on the Vitória-Minas railroad and production in the Southeast and South Systems, saying the measures aim to “ensure the safety of its employees and communities, due to the high level of rainfall affecting Minas Gerais.
Since last month, Brazil has recorded heavy rainfall in states such as Bahia, with flooding in the region’s cities, and which has caused damage to power supplies.
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After below-historical average rainfall in the second half of 2021, the rains have helped to fill reservoirs following a period of electricity generation crisis, and have tested the infrastructure deficiencies of the country’s main cities, with the start of the wet season on the Brazilian coast influenced this year by the La Niña phenomenon, an abnormal cooling of the Pacific Ocean waters.
Vale and TUEV SUED AG were indicted by Brazil’s Federal Police in 2021 for environmental crimes in a 2019 deadly dam collapse that buried a rural village and spread mining waste in the area. The 2019 disaster in Brumadinho in southeastern Brazil caused Vale to lose its position as the world’s biggest iron-ore producer and sparked a company-wide safety and governance overhaul.
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Vale and Usiminas on the Rains in Minas Gerais
“Activities should only resume when the weather conditions improve and allow safe access to the mines and proper operation of equipment, as well as after a review of the conditions of the overall facilities,” Usiminas said in a statement about the Musa shutdown.
The steelmaker clarified that, for now, the stoppage should not affect the supply of raw material to Usiminas, and that Musa’s own stocks will be used for the supply.
“Also due to the heavy rains in the region, Musa triggered this Saturday (January 8), level 1 of the Emergency Action Plan for Mining Dams (PAEBM) for its central dam, deactivated since 2014,″ the company statement added.
‘Level 1′ means an initial state of alert and does not represent a compromise of the dam’s safety factors, and neither does it require the evacuation of residents from high-risk areas or the sounding of sirens, Usiminas said.
Vale’s Dams in Minas Gerais
Vale has said that in the Southeast System, the Vitória-Minas railroad is blocked along the Rio Piracicaba-João Monlevade stretch, preventing the flow of material from Brucutu and the Mariana complex, both of which have suspended production.
According to the mining company, the Desembargador Drummond-Nova Era stretch is also blocked, but it is in the process of being cleared and the situation has not affected production at the Itabira Complex.
“In the Southern System, due to interruptions on stretches of the BR-040 and MG-030 highways, production at all the complexes is temporarily halted for the safety of the circulation of employees and/or third parties and the infrastructure of the mines. Vale is taking all necessary measures to resume activities, maintaining its focus on the necessary precautions to ensure the safety of employees and communities located around its structures,” the mining company said.
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According to Vale, the North System continues to operate according to the production schedule, which takes into account the seasonal impact of the rainy season in all operations, and Vale is therefore maintaining its production guidance of 320-335Mt for 2022.
“Vale is following the rainfall situation in Minas Gerais and monitoring its dams 24 hours a day, in real time, through the Geotechnical Monitoring Centers,” the company said. “There was no change in the emergency level in any of its structures, which are permanently monitored by inspections, maintenance, radar, robot stations, video cameras and instruments such as manual and automatic piezometers,” the company said.
CSN
CSN (Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional) and its subsidiary CSN Mineração have also suspended operations in Minas Gerais. On Sunday, a Minas Gerais court ordered that a civil defense team be dispatched to the Casa de Pedra dam.
“Due to the intense rains recorded in the southeast region of Brazil in recent days, the extraction and handling operations at Casa de Pedra mine have been temporarily suspended, with an expected return to activities in the coming days,” the company said in a statement, adding that ore-loading operations at the coal terminal in the port of Itaguaí, in Rio de Janeiro, has been suspended due to the high degree of humidity at the site.
“The companies will take all necessary measures to maintain their operations, respecting the necessary precautions to ensure the safety of employees and communities, and expect a gradual resumption of activities as soon as weather conditions allow,” CSN and CSN Mineração said.
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