Brazilian rescue workers halted searches for the night on Saturday for hundreds of people missing and feared dead under a sea of mud after a tailings dam burst at an iron ore mine owned by Vale SA, killing at least 34 people.
The dam ruptured on Friday, releasing a torrent of mining waste that slammed into Vale’s facilities and cut through a nearby community, leaving a roughly 150-metre-wide (500-foot-wide) wake of destruction stretching for miles (km).
The Minas Gerais state fire department, which gave the latest confirmed death toll, also said 23 people had been sent to hospitals.
Some 250 people remained missing, according to a list released by Vale. All of those missing are Vale employees or contractors, a police spokesman said.
The search is set to resume on Sunday morning.
Firefighters focused their hopes for finding survivors on a trapped bus and train, along with mining facilities and nearby homes that were buried in mud after the dam break at Vale’s Corrego do Feijao mine near the town of Brumadinho.
Reuters witnesses saw homes knocked over, roadways washed out, and a rail bridge demolished by the wave of mud.
Frantic family members of the missing crowded into a warehouse set up by Vale for those affected, next to a stretch of river erased by the sludge. More than a dozen helicopters helping to survey the area took off and landed from a soccer field nearby.
“Unfortunately, at this point, the chances of finding survivors are minimal. We’re likely to just be recovering bodies,” Romeu Zema, governor of Minas Gerais, told local media.
During a news conference, Zema said the mining complex had all its permits in order and it was unclear what caused the collapse of the dam, which had been inactive for years.
German auditor TUV SUD said on Saturday it had inspected the tailings dam last September and found it to be operating well.
Vale Chief Executive Fabio Schvartsman said there had not been any recent construction around the dam and apologised without taking responsibility in a television interview.
“Apologies to society, apologies to you, apologies to the whole world for what has happened,” he said. “I don’t know who is responsible, but you can be sure we’ll do our part.”
The National Mining Agency ordered Vale, the world’s largest producer of iron ore, to halt operations at the Corrego do Feijao mine, located near the town of Brumadinho.
State courts in two separate actions froze a total of 6 billion reais ($1.6 billion) in Vale’s accounts to eventually pay for damages. Environmental agency Ibama fined Vale 250 million reais for regulatory violations, while state environmental agency Semad fined the miner 99 million reais.
