The judiciary in Brazil ordered two employees of TÜV Süddeutschland and eleven employees of the mining group Vale Haft. The state court of the state of Minas Gerais in the southeast of the country reversed the employees' release, which was ordered in February.
The judiciary is investigating the dam near Vale's iron ore mine Córrego do Feijão near Brumadinho. On January 25, at least 200 people died in parts of the city and adjacent settlements under a mudslide. 108 people are still missing.
TÜV Süd no longer wants to inspect dams in Brazil, as CEO Axel Stepken told the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung". "We have lost confidence in the current Brazilian testing process." The company's TÜV experts have certified a total of 30 dams for the mining company in the South American country.
Doubts about eight more dams
According to Stepken, further dams have doubts as to whether the calculation bases for the statics are correct: "The first impression shows that the methodology used to calculate the stability has to be questioned in so far eight dams," he told the newspaper. "Although the findings are very preliminary, we have forwarded them to reduce potential risks to humans and the environment."
more on the subject
In Wednesday's press release, the court explicitly mentions that two engineers from TÜV Süd certified the stability of the dam. Preliminary investigations indicated that both Vale and TÜV Süd employees and others were aware of stability risks at the dam.
Vale is the world's largest iron ore producer and one of the largest corporations in Brazil. The company lost a quarter of its market value since the disaster.
Meanwhile, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Brazilian investigators are checking more than 100 dams for their safety with high damage. The reason was that they doubted the safety analyzes of the inspecting companies after the dam break in Brumadinho.