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Events/Disaster · 2015

Fundao tailings dam collapse at Mariana

Disaster, 2015-11-05, Brazil.

What happened

The Fundao tailings dam at the Samarco iron ore operation failed in November 2015. The Guardian says 19 people died. The London Mining Network reports the dam held 56.4 million cubic metres of tailings after seven years of use.1,2,3

Why it matters

It is Brazil's worst environmental disaster and led to the largest mining liability cases in the UK and Brazil.1,2,3

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. Blaenavon Industrial Landscape inscribed

    UNESCO World Heritage listing event.4

  2. Kiruna relocation announced

    It is a case of a town moved because of the mine beneath it.5,6,7

  3. Bento Rodrigues dam failure, Mariana, Brazil

    Wikidata records 17 deaths in the tailings dam failure.8

  4. Fundao tailings dam collapse at Mariana

    It is Brazil's worst environmental disaster and led to the largest mining liability cases in the UK and Brazil.1,2,3

  5. Brumadinho dam disaster

    Brumadinho dam disaster. Wikidata records 269 deaths.9

  6. Juukan Gorge rock shelters destroyed

    Rio Tinto's board review followed and its chief executive and two senior executives lost their 2020 bonuses.10,11,12,13

  7. Australia exports 746 Mt of iron ore to China

    USGS records 746 Mt of iron ore including pellets exported to China in 2022.14

  8. Australia mines 980 Mt of iron ore

    USGS estimates 980 million tonnes of crude iron ore from Australian mines in 2025.15

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Where next

Events

An example ofBrumadinho dam collapseFour years after Fundao, the Corrego do Feijao dam collapse killed 270.16ExamplesMount Polley tailings dam breachFifteen months after Mount Polley, the Fundao dam failed in Brazil, killing 19.1

Places

Located inOuro PretoSee the nearby place: Ouro Preto.1

Sources

  1. London judge rules BHP liable for 2015 Brazil dam collapse (14 Nov 2025) The Guardian
  2. Fundao dam disaster report (2017) London Mining Network
  3. Bento Rodrigues dam disaster (item Q21402069), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  4. Blaenavon Industrial Landscape UNESCO World Heritage Centre
  5. Moving a town to save a mine: the story of Kiruna (2019) Mining Technology
  6. A history of LKAB
  7. Kiruna (item Q83232), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  8. Wikidata item Q21402069 (Bento Rodrigues dam disaster)
  9. Wikidata item Q60998244 (Brumadinho dam disaster)
  10. Rio Tinto blasts 46,000-year-old Aboriginal site to expand iron ore mine (26 May 2020) The Guardian
  11. Rio Tinto executives stripped of bonuses over destruction of Juukan Gorge rock shelters (24 Aug 2020) ABC News (Australia)
  12. Rio Tinto publishes board review of cultural heritage management (25 Aug 2020)
  13. Juukan Gorge (item Q102115281), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  14. 2022 Minerals Yearbook: Australia [Advance Release] U.S. Geological Survey
  15. Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Iron Ore U.S. Geological Survey
  16. Brazil: Dam collapse in Brumadinho marks 3 years (24 Jan 2022) Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (citing IndustriALL)

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Conveyors, rail and ports by Kabelleger / David Gubler, CC BY-SA 4.0. Pictures: Kirunavaara gruva, Kiruna., Fotograf okänd, / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Mijnramp Bois du Caizier, Marcinelle, België. Schacht, Rossem, Wim van / Anefo / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0).