Latest Mining Headlines
All the headlines from our Mining Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Brazil’s Vale Warns Another Mine Tailings Dam at Risk of Collapse
May 17 2019 // Brazilian iron ore miner Vale SA told prosecutors in the state of Minas Gerais that a dam is at risk of rupturing at its Gongo Soco mine, about 40 miles from where its Brumadinho dam collapsed, killing more than 230...
Brazil’s Vale to Invest $2.5B in Technology to Prevent Mining Dam Disasters: Reuters
May 10 2019 // Brazil’s Vale said on Thursday that it plans to invest $2.5 billion over the next five years in technology that removes the need for tailings dams, the waste facilities responsible for two deadly mining disasters in...
Mining Giant BHP Faces $5B Damages Claim over 2015 Brazil Dam Disaster
May 8 2019 // Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP is facing a landmark, $5.0 billion damages claim in England for being “woefully negligent” in the run-up to a 2015 dam failure that led to Brazil’s worst environmental...
Mine Operator Cited for Safety Issues in Fatality at Nevada Gold Mine
Mar 28 2019 // Federal mine safety officials have cited an Idaho-based company for inadequate safety controls at a gold mine it operates in northeast Nevada where a worker was killed in an underground collapse in October. The U.S. Mine...
Brazil Mining Giant Vale Warns Another Tailings Dam Could Collapse
Mar 25 2019 // Brazilian mining giant Vale said Saturday [March 23] that communities in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais have been ordered to evacuate after independent auditors found that one of its dams could collapse at any...
Australia Mining Firms Report Some Impact from Cyclones as Clean Up Begins
Mar 25 2019 // Mining giants Rio Tinto, BHP Group and Fortescue Metals said their Australian operations had suffered some impact after two cyclones hit the country over the weekend, with clean up starting on Monday in the wake of the...
Northern Australia Braces for 2 Cyclones, Disrupting Mining, Shipping Operations
Mar 22 2019 // Commodity giant Glencore on Friday said it had suspended operations at its McArthur River zinc mine in northern Australia as a cyclone approaches. Authorities have declared a state of emergency in the region as Tropical...
Mine Worker Advocates Worried Coal Firm’s Tax Cut Jeopardizes Black Lung Fund
Mar 22 2019 // The Trump administration and coal industry allies are insisting that a federal black lung trust fund will continue to pay benefits to sick miners despite a drastic cut in funding. But the expected shortfalls will be...
Brazil’s Backlash over Vale Dam Disaster Deepens with Mine Closure, Frozen Funds
Mar 19 2019 // Vale SA’s shares declined on Monday as the world’s biggest iron ore producer faced continued backlash from Brazilian authorities after a deadly mining accident in January. Rio de Janeiro-based Vale was ordered...
Brazil Miner Vale Fired Inspection Firm for Refusing to Certify Dam’s Safety: Prosecutors
Mar 6 2019 // Brazilian iron ore miner Vale fired an inspection firm because the company refused to certify one of its dams as safe, months before the barrier collapsed and killed hundreds, prosecutors said in a document filed this...
Brazil Tailings Dam Disaster Pushes Mining CEOs to Make Safety Changes
Feb 27 2019 // After last month’s deadly tailings dam disaster at a Vale SA facility in Brazil, Freeport-McMoRan Inc Chief Executive Richard Adkerson sent a memo to his 29,000 employees telling them to immediately report any safety...
Brazil Miner Vale Knew Its Tailings Dam Had Higher Risk of Collapse: Reuters
Feb 12 2019 // Vale SA , the world’s largest iron ore miner, knew last year that the dam in Brazil that collapsed in January and killed at least 165 people had a heightened risk of rupturing, according to an internal document seen...
Brazil’s Burst Dam Disasters Blamed on Cheap Storage of Mining Waste
Feb 1 2019 // The deadly collapse of a Vale SA tailings dam in Brazil is serving as a wake-up call for an industry that regularly cuts costs by storing mining waste in the cheapest possible way. The slurry of ground rock and effluents...
Brazil Dam Disaster Could Delay Settlement for 2015’s Samarco Mine Disaster
Jan 30 2019 // Brazil’s deadly tailings dam collapse is likely to complicate a settlement for a similar disaster less than four years ago at the Samarco iron ore mine, owned jointly by Vale SA and BHP Group, investors said on...
Brazil Weighs Management Overhaul at Vale After Mine Disaster; Death Toll Rises
Jan 29 2019 // Brazil’s government weighed pushing for a management overhaul at iron ore miner Vale SA on Monday as grief over the hundreds feared killed by a dam burst turned into anger, with prosecutors, politicians and...
Collapsed Brazil Mining Dam Kills at Least 58, in Echoes of 2015 Disaster
Jan 28 2019 // Brazilian rescuers searched into the night on Sunday for hundreds of people missing after a burst mining dam triggered a deadly mudslide, as the death toll rose to 58 and was expected to keep climbing more than two days...
Kentucky Coal-Mining Deaths at Record Low in 2018
Jan 14 2019 // The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration says coal-mining related deaths have reached a record low in Kentucky where a single miner died last year. The Lexington Herald-Leader reports the agency said Jan. 8 that...
Tropical Cyclone Penny Slams North Australia Coast Near Rio Tinto Mine
Jan 2 2019 // Tropical Cyclone Penny slammed into the far north coast of Australia’s Queensland state near Rio Tinto Group’s Weipa bauxite mine, triggering warnings of flash flooding and damaging winds. The category 1...
Australia Court Narrows Class-Action Suits Against BHP over Brazil Mine Disaster
Dec 19 2018 // The Federal Court of Australia on Tuesday ordered that the number of class-action lawsuits against BHP Group over a Brazilian mine collapse be narrowed to one from three. BHP is facing legal challenges over the 2015...
BHP Readies for Largest English Group Lawsuit over 2015 Brazil Mine Disaster
Nov 26 2018 // Mining giant BHP says it will fight an unprecedented English lawsuit filed by hundreds of thousands of Brazilians for multi-billion pound damages over Brazil’s worst environmental disaster. SPG Law, a British...
