TÜV SÜD pulls out of dam safety checks
Reuters reports that Germany’s TÜV SÜD has pulled out of conducting safety assessments of dams after the collapse of a Brazilian dam it had vetted killed almost 250 people in January. The collapse of the tailings dam, which was operated by Brazilian mining company Vale SA, flooded the town of Brumadinho with mining waste water only four months after TÜV SÜD had vouched for the safety of the structure.
“So far nobody knows the cause of the accident,” said Axel Stepken, CEO. “We do not know in particular what happened between September 2018 and January 2019 — if, for example, heavy equipment was being operated nearby or if there had been detonations.”
TÜV SÜD’s September 2018 safety report had warned against operating heavy equipment on the structure which had been raised from an original height of 18 m to 86 m.
“The operator is responsible for safety, and that is Vale,” he said, adding Vale had not sought damages from TÜV SÜD.
Brazilian police in June said controlled explosions took place at Vale’s nearby mine on a daily basis before the dam collapsed and that they had not ruled out those blasts from playing a role in the dam burst. A Brazilian senate committee has called for Vale’s chief financial officer and its former chief executive to face murder charges over the disaster and for TÜV SÜD to be indicted.
In May, a Brazilian court also froze 60 million reais ($15 million) of TÜV SÜD’s assets to help pay for reparations to affected families.
TÜV SÜD has estimated a hit of around €100 million in potential damages, legal and other costs related to the disaster, according to its annual report. However, the Brazilian disaster has not damaged TÜV SÜD’s order intake, with revenues from other business remaining at the same level as a year earlier, Stepken said.
The so-called upstream type of dam is considered the most dangerous as it is most susceptible to liquid seeping under the dam and weakening the structure, which authorities believe is what may have happened in Brumadinho.
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