events
An iron ore tailings dam bursts in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, flooding a valley, causing mudslides in the nearby village of Bento Rodrigues and causing at least 17 deaths and two missing.
Related Wikipedia articles
Iron ore
Ore rich in iron or the element Fe
Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the form of magnetite (Fe3O4, 72.4% Fe),…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Tailings dam
Type of dam
A tailings dam is typically an earth-fill embankment dam used to store byproducts of mining operations after separating the ore from the gangue. Tailings can be liquid, solid, or a slurry of fine particles, and are usually highly toxic and potentially radioactive. Solid tailings…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Mariana dam disaster
2015 environmental disaster near Mariana, Minas Gerais, Brazil
The Mariana dam disaster, also known as the Bento Rodrigues or Samarco dam disaster, occurred on 5 November 2015, when the Fundão tailings dam at the Germano iron ore mine of the Samarco Mariana Mining Complex near Mariana, Minas Gerais, Brazil, suffered a catastrophic failure,…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Minas Gerais
State in Brazil
Minas Gerais is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 census. Located in the Southeast Region of the country, it is bordered to south…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)