Sorry to post details of yet another Mine tailings dam failure!
This time in Brazil, at an opencast iron ore mine.
The mine is operated by two of the largest mining companies in the world, and although details are sketchy, at the minute, at least 14 people have tragically, lost their lives.

Looks quite a major event. (link includes video)

Casualties from two collapsed dams at a Brazilian iron ore mine mounted on Friday as rescue teams worked through the night to find dozens missing in mudslides that devastated a village in the country's southeast.
The head of emergency planning at Samarco, the joint venture company that runs the mine, told GloboNews of reports of seismic activity in the area in the hour leading up to the incident.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/06/us-vale-sa-bhp-billiton-dam-idUSKCN0SU38I20151106 

That looks really grim, must have been massive lakes behind those dams, look at the high water mark up those trees! :ohmygod:

"Two of the largest mining companies in the world." That makes it entirely without excuse. We might be somewhat sympathetic to some small enterprise who has a mishap and kills a few people, but when the big boys do it, it is generally just plain criminal, unless some new and hitherto unknown factor is at work. Unlikely, because it was just a fairly mundane dam, and they know how to build and maintain them.

I hope that the legal system in Brazil moves swiftly and obtains good (and I mean US-sized) compensation payments for the families of the deceased, plus manslaughter charges for company executives. These big companies and they way they think they can behave in the developing world sicken me. Bhopal for instance, nothing to do with mining, but a very big multinational who never cared at all about the safety of people, and still don't.

I am glad that I live in the UK. The HSE, for all their limitations, do a great deal of work to help ensure that things like this do not happen here. But it is never enough. Many countries do not have anything like HSE. Even the US has various almost powerless safety authorities, who might slap a pathetic little fine of a few hundred dollars on a mining company now and again, but families have to claim through the courts, which will often take at least 10 years and cost a small fortune.

The recent mine pollution accident in the U.S.A. was CAUSED by the environmental protection agency!

Quite a long appraisal of this mine disaster in the Times today!
BHP's CEO, a Scot, seems to take this health and safety issue, very serioursly(as he should). As a result of the accident he will forfeit 4o% of his salary! - I can hear some you commenting it is not severe enough, but at least it is a deterrent,
The article stated that both BHP and RTZ had put safety at the core of their mining operations, and driven fatalities to very low levels.
It went to suggest that the management in the mine may have grown complacent since accidents were rare. It also stated that BHP are in a 50:50 joint venture with the Brazilian miner Vale. Apparently these arrangements, are said to lead to less "effective management", which might have encouraged more complacency.
It is thought that the clean up operation will cost £1 billion and the mine will probably not reopen until 2019

Update.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/mining/11999951/BHP-and-Vale-pay-out-260m-over-burst-Samarco-dam-in-Brazil.html 

High resolution images - and some speculative analysis of what may have occurred - show the size and scale of the failures.

http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2015/11/17/bento-rodrigues-dam-failures/ 

An initail report, states that Vale, BHP's partner in the ownership of the operating company put some of their tailings from one of their other mines into the dam hence adding extra
pressure on the dam wall.
Apparently pressure sensors were incorporated into the dam wall and investigators are naturally demanding to know what the company knew and where in the dam thes were situated.
As some of you probably know, this sludge has now reached the sea, and the authorities are claiming that it will take 30 years to get the river back to the state it was before the accident.

Just an up date on this event. The mining company have agreed to pay the Brazilian Government £4 billion, for this disaster.
The Brazilian police are arresting some of the top executives of the Samarco Company and charging them with murder.
It will be interesting to see how it all pans out.

Update.

https://www.rt.com/business/363625-brazil-charges-mine-collapse/ 

I could not help feeling today that just, maybe, things are moving towards, much more corporate responsibility!
We are seeing the attitude of the Brazilian authorities, now, in direct contrast that with the attitude of the NCB and the authorities 50 years ago with the Abervan disaste!