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Eight employees of Brazilian mining company Vale SA, including two executives, have been arrested as part of a criminal investigation into the cause of a deadly dam disaster that claimed the life of more than 160 people.
- All eight employees were responsible for the security and stability of the Brumadinho dam
- Search warrants were also issued against German auditing firm TUV SUD, which certified the site as stable
- Five people were arrested last month as part of an investigation into the cause of the collapse
Police also carried out 14 search warrants as part of the probe, state prosecutors in the mining state of Minas Gerais said on Friday (local time).
The arrests and search warrants targeted employees of Vale, the operator of the tailings dam that collapsed last month, as well as employees of German auditing firm TUV SUD that had certified the dam as stable.
Authorities in the state of Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro were involved in the operation.
All eight Vale employees arrested were responsible for the security and stability of the Brumadinho dam and will remain in prison for 30 days, prosecutors said.
It follows the arrest of five people last month, including three employees and two other engineers working on behalf of the company, deepening a crisis for the company after another deadly disaster at one of its mines.
Vale said it was cooperating with the investigators probing the mining catastrophe, which is likely to leave a death toll of more than 300 people.
It has pledged to donate 100,000 reais ($37,350) to each family that had lost a loved one, however offers of recompense have largely fallen on deaf ears.
In response to questions from lawmakers this week, Chief Executive Officer Fabio Schvartsman said the company's safety procedures had not worked.
Reuters/ABC
Topics: dams-and-reservoirs, disasters-and-accidents, accidents, accidents---other, death, business-economics-and-finance, industry, mining-industry, mining-environmental-issues, brazil