Brazil prosecutors open criminal probe into Samarco CEO (Reuters U.S. – July 13, 2016)

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Brazilian federal prosecutors said on Wednesday they opened an investigation into alleged environmental crimes by Roberto Carvalho, chief executive of iron-ore mining company Samarco Mineração SA, over a deadly damburst last year.

According to a statement released by prosecutors, Samarco, a 50-50 joint venture between Brazil’s Vale SA and Australia’s BHP Billiton Ltd, has failed to fully implement emergency precautionary measures ordered by Brazil’s environmental protection agency Ibama in the wake of the October 2015 tailings dam burst.

In what has been billed the worst environmental disaster in Brazil’s history, the flood of iron-rich mud killed 19 people, wiped out several towns and polluted hundreds of kilometers (miles) of rivers in Brazil’s Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo states.

The opening of an investigation is the latest set back for plans to re-open Samarco, restore lost jobs in the region and help it raise cash for an estimated 20 billion real ($6.13 million) clean-up plan.

Brazilian prosecutors have attacked the plan, agreed to with the federal government in March, as too small and lacking specifics. Samarco’s mine is not expected to reopen before mid 2017.

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