BHP BHP Group Limited

By Paul Kiernan 

RIO DE JANEIRO--Brazilian miner Vale SA acknowledged for the first time Friday the presence of toxic elements in a river flooded with mud and mine waste following the failure of a dam at its joint venture, Samarco Mineração SA.

Samarco, Vale and its joint-venture partner BHP Billiton Ltd. say the tsunami of mud unleashed in the Nov. 5 dam break was comprised of water, mud, iron-oxide and sand, none of which are harmful. In a news conference Friday, Vale executives continued to stress that was the case. But Vania Somavilla, Vale's executive director of human relations, health and safety, sustainability and energy, said at the news conference that the mud may have upset toxic elements settled in the bed of the Rio Doce, or along its banks.

The admission comes two days after a United Nations report alleging "high levels of toxic heavy metals and other toxic chemicals" in the Rio Doce and criticizing the mining companies and the Brazilian government for their "defensive" public response to the incident.

Brazil's government didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on its statements this week.

Considered one of Brazil's worst environmental catastrophes, the Samarco incident has displaced hundreds of people living alongside the Rio Doce. Most of them lived in the village of Bento Rodrigues, just below the dam system, which was virtually wiped out. As many as 13 workers and local residents died when the sludge inundated towns in the area. Another 11 are missing.

Ms. Somavilla, saying she was mainly citing a report by the Minas Gerais state Institute of Water Management, or IGAM, said, "In fact there was lead, arsenic--not mercury--detected in some points along the river." She added, "When the dam breaks and that stuff washes out the banks of the river, it could have picked up some kind of material that was already present, from the most diverse of origins, but they're all materials present in nature."

The IGAM report was dated Nov. 17 but only published this week, after prosecutors ordered IGAM to post it online.

A spokesman for IGAM said he didn't know why the institute didn't post the report, which appeared to contradict recent statements by the Brazilian federal government, earlier.

The 29-page document includes samples collected at 12 points along the Rio Doce between Nov. 7 and Nov. 12, as the mud from Samarco's dam snaked downstream.

At various collection points, the report showed record levels of toxic metals.

Arsenic, which the World Health Organization says can cause skin lesions, liver disease and cancer, was detected at as much as 108 times the legal maximum. Lead, which can cause brain damage, was measured at as much as 165 times the legal maximum. Copper, linked to gastrointestinal problems, was at as much as 75 times the limit. Chromium, which can cause gastrointestinal disorders and hemorrhaging, was at as much as 57 times the limit. Among the other metals detected were nickel, cadmium, manganese and iron found at elevated levels.

Citing "more than 40" water samples between Nov. 14 and Nov. 18, the federal government said in an emailed statement Thursday that "there was not an increase in the presence of heavy metals in the water and sediments."

But tests by a municipal water agency along the river, which were sent to the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, showed high levels of toxic metals such as arsenic on Nov. 10. This and other evidence prompted a blistering criticism of BHP, Vale and the Brazilian government by U.N. special rapporteurs John Knox and Baskut Tuncak on Wednesday.

"This is not the time for defensive posturing," Messrs. Knox and Tuncak said, "It is not acceptable that it has taken three weeks for information about the toxic risks of the mining disaster to surface."

Write to Paul Kiernan at paul.kiernan@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 27, 2015 16:09 ET (21:09 GMT)

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