A criminal investigation into the fatal collapse of a dam owned by mining firm Vale SA should be concluded in the coming days, a Brazilian prosecutor said on Tuesday, with charges to follow. “State prosecutors are working with the state police, federal prosecutors and federal police, and we’re of the conviction that we’ll deliver a solution in the coming days,” Antônio Sérgio Tonet, the top prosecutor in the state of Minas Gerais, told journalists. “We’re going to conclude our investigations and bring the guilty to justice,” he said. In January, a tailings dam at a Vale-owned mine in Minas Gerais collapsed, unleashing more than 12 million cubic meters of mining waste on the small town of Brumadinho and killing hundreds. It was the second fatal burst at a Vale-linked dam in the state in just over three years. In the months since, prosecutors have identified ample evidence that employees at Vale and the Brazilian division of Germany’s TUV SUD, which inspected the dam, were aware of elevated risks associated with the structure. Earlier on Tuesday, Reuters reported that Vale misrepresented the steps it had taken to mitigate safety issues following the first dam collapse in 2015.
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