The Brazilian miner Vale is still assessing the damage from the accident at the Brumadinho mine at the end of January. This has resulted in over 150 fatalities and has spurred a number of decisions by the Brazilian authorities which are impacting the miner’s production in the short and medium term.

Last week, for example, Vale declared force majeure in a series of iron ore and pellets sales contracts. This followed the decision of Belo Horizonte district court to temporarily suspend production at the Brucutu mine on 4 February.

“Vale reinforces its understanding that there is no technical basis nor risk assessment that justifies the court decision to suspend the operation and is taking the appropriate legal measures to resume its operations as soon as possible”, Vale said.

The estimated impact of the temporary suspension of the Laranjeiras dam is nearly 30 million tonnes/year of iron ore, the miner confirmed.