{"id":39899,"date":"2022-01-11T08:10:53","date_gmt":"2022-01-11T08:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=39899"},"modified":"2022-01-11T08:10:53","modified_gmt":"2022-01-11T08:10:53","slug":"pau-branco-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2022\/01\/11\/pau-branco-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Pau Branco: another significant mining-related landslide in Brazil"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pau Branco: another significant mining-related landslide in Brazil<\/h4>\n

On Saturday 8 January 2022 another significant mining-related landslide occurred in Brazil.\u00a0 On this occasion the site was the Pau Branco iron ore mine, which is located on the western side of Quadril\u00e1tero Ferr\u00edfero region.\u00a0 The mine is reportedly owned by the French company Vallourec.\u00a0 Mining operations at the site have been suspended by the regulator.<\/p>\n

The Brazilian website Observat\u00f3rio da Minera\u00e7\u00e3o<\/a>\u00a0has a report on the landslide<\/a>, in Portuguese.\u00a0 It includes this image of the failure:-<\/p>\n

\"The

The 8 January 2022 landslide at the Pau Branco mine in Brazil. Image via Observat\u00f3rio da Minera\u00e7\u00e3o<\/a>, collected by\u00a0 Bruno Costalonga Ferrete.<\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

The location appears to be -20.145, -43.968.\u00a0 This is Google Earth image of the location, from a similar perspective as above:-<\/p>\n

\"Google

Google Earth image of the site of the 8 January 2022 landslide at Pau Branco.<\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

It appears that a benched slope has failed.\u00a0 The mechanism is unclear but a rotational landslide looks likely.\u00a0 It appears that the mass has fluidised to become a flow.\u00a0 The image below suggests that this then overtopped a water retention lagoon, but fortunately the dam did not fail. The landslide then impacted the major road at the foot of the slope.<\/p>\n

\"The

The flowpath of the 8 January 2022 landslide at the Pau Branco mine in Brazil. Image via Observat\u00f3rio da Minera\u00e7\u00e3o<\/a>, by Bruno Costalonga Ferrete.<\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

A report on the <\/a>Observat\u00f3rio da Minera\u00e7\u00e3o<\/a> website indicates that the retention structure, which is not a tailings dam, was upgraded last year<\/a>.\u00a0 The failure itself has occurred in a benched slope above the lagoon.\u00a0 It appears to me that this slope consisted of mine waste dumped onto the natural slope – Google Earth images suggest that the slope was created between 2006 and 2010 – but this needs confirmation.\u00a0 I would imagine that this slope was created to increase the volume of mine waste that could be dumped upslope in the main waste storage site.\u00a0 The Google Earth image below shows the configuration:-<\/p>\n

\"Google

Google Earth image of the configuration of the site of the 8 January 2022 landslide at Pau Branco.<\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

So overall I this that this was probably a rotational landslide that fluidised into a flow, with the failure occurring in benched mine waste.\u00a0 But I would welcome views from others via the comments.<\/p>\n

Once again, this event will ask questions about the stability of mine waste in Brazil (and beyond).\u00a0 It also continues to drive concerns about the capability of mining companies to ensure that slopes are stable and that regulators are able to ensure that appropriate methods are being used.\u00a0 It feels likely that we will see another major mine waste failure this year, despite some efforts to improve mine waste management practices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 8 January 2022 a significant landslide occurred at the Pau Branco iron ore mine in Brazil, operated by the French company Vallourec. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":39902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[102,469,959,299,205,122],"class_list":["post-39899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-brazil","tag-featured","tag-landslide-report","tag-mine","tag-mining","tag-south-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}