Section III: Case Studies

On 5 November 2015, the devastating collapse of two dams owned by Samarco in Mariana, killed 19 people and flooded the Doce River, an important river for the southeast region of Brazil. The 40 million litres of contaminated water and sediment from iron ore extraction that was released polluted the water supply in the Doce River for hundreds of thousands of people and decimated wildlife. The event has been described as the biggest environmental accident in the history of the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil.

Before the disaster, Samarco, the operator of the Germano iron ore mine and its joint venture owners BHP and Vale, was identified as a Brazilian success story. In 2014, despite falling international iron prices, it declared a net profit of $1.3bn.