Live recovery map from Samarco
The Foundation "Renova"
The foundation was founded June 30, 2016, by the company Samarco as a consequence of the collapse of the Fundão dam in Mariana, Brazil. Samarco owns the mines and the dam.
The Renova Foundation was established as an outcome from the signing of the Transaction and Conduct Adjustment Term (TTAC) on March 2, 2015 between Samarco and the Federal Government of Brazil, the State Government of Minas Gerais (the province where the disaster happened) and others. Samarco is supported by his shareholders Vale and BHP Billiton.
The agreement obliges Renova to create, manage and carry out actions that will help to support and rehabilitate the area and communities that were affected by the dam break.
Their main focus lays on the three important topics for them: people and communities, land and water, reconstruction and infrastructure. Part of their work is to inform the people about what had happened and how the current status is.
According to statements of the Renova Foundation, they have so far created 42 programs in order to fulfil the agreements of the TTAC. Additional programs are in planning. They are categorized into socioeconomic and environmental plans.
The social programs are focused on bringing people together. Others are focused on reconstructing the damage of affected areas.
Renova Foundation claims to stand for transparency, integrity and openness. They work on trying to regain the trust of the communities.
To name the obvious fact, the only reason for what Renova was founded is to compensate the major mistakes committed by Samarco.
There are many critiques concerning the Foundation. Wellington Azevedo says, that a lot of the programs and the progresses shown on the web page, just exist online. In fact, the company is luring with jobs in the field of mining. He also says, that right now six mines have dams in an even worse condition than the Fundão dam used to be before is collapsed. And that the financial compensations for the affected communities were declared invalid by the Brazilian Justice.
According to Felipe Fernandes, Renova wants to cover up the problems as quick as possible by muting the affected people with money. With that Samarco can cleanly move back.
In conclusion, with their programs Renova does make an effort to help the affected people and to recover the damaged areas, nevertheless way too litlle. However, they may not really be as transparent and honest as they claim to be on their web page.
Source:
www.fundacaorenova.org
www.latina-press.com/news/243045-brasilien-katastrophaler-dammbruch-jaehrt-sich-zum-zweiten-mal/
(8. January 2018)
Samarco Mineração S.A.
The Brazilian company Samarco Mineração S.A. is based in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil and is owned by two mining giants, Brazil´s Vale SA and BHP Billiton Ltd. based in Melbourne, Australia. The company is engaged in mining, beneficiation, pelletizing and export of iron ore. Founded in 1977 their yearly production capacity reached nowadays 30,5 Mt. Dollars. The company´s steel products are used in the construction of bridges, electronic products, cars, home appliances, and others. They are exporting to North America, Asia, Africa and Europe.
Samarco was the owner of the mine where the dam broke. After the disaster the operations were shut down. BHP Samarco reported in August a record loss of 6,4bn Dollar, according to them as a consequence of the disaster as well as of the slump in commodity prices.
After all, Samarco is satisfied with their form of compensation. But some people are suspecting Samarco just want to cover up the mess and reopen the mine. The coordinator of a group of environmental prosecutors in the state Minas Gerais Carlos Pinot says, that all the effort is focused on a return to their activities and not on society and environmental recuperation. On the other side, after Yet Da Silva Samarco did a good job, by reopen quickly roads and rebuilding a nearby bridge. So, the opinions over the actions of Samarco are differently. But the federal environment agency form Brazil, Ibama published a critical report over the environmental recuperation work. Further an investigation by Brazil`s federal police conclude the company knew the dam was at risk before the collapse and there is still mining waste left in the broken dam complex.
BHP Billiton is an Australia-Britain company and one of the tree biggest mining companies in the world, besides Vale and Rio Tinto Group. Vale SA is a Brazilian multinational cooperation and worldwide the largest producer of iron ore and nickel.
Source:
https://www.bnamericas.com/company-profile/en/samarco-mineracao-sa-samarco
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/oct/15/samarco-dam-collapse-brazil-worst-environmental-disaster-bhp-billiton-vale-mining
https://www.wsj.com/articles/mining-company-samarcos-dam-bursts-in-brazil-1446763579
(January 20, 2018)
