Agents from the Minas Gerais Fire Department reported Friday (Feb. 1) no estimates can be made for the end of the efforts to locate the victims of mining giant Vale’s mining tailings dam failure, which took place on January 25, in the Brumadinho region. “We still have to draw a plan; it takes several days.
Over time, as the mud becomes stable, we should change operational techniques and then have an outlook. As it stands today, it’s impossible to fix a final date for the operation,” said Colonel Erlon Dias do Nascimento Botelho, spearheading the efforts.
Altogether, after eight days of searches, 110 people have been found dead, of whom 71 have been identified by the police. A total of 238 people are still missing and 108 lost their homes.
Lieutenant Pedro Aihara, the spokesman of the corps, said the teams has split the area covered by the searches into 45 quadrants to make task assignment easier.
Donations
Vale decided to donate $22 million to Brumadinho’s city hall to compensate for the loss of revenues following the collapse. The amount is expected to be transferred over the course of two years.
On Tuesday (29), the mining firm also declared that ten similar dams will be closed down, all of which located in Minas Gerais state.
