January 31, 2020
Dear Editor,
A year ago a tailings dam in Brazil, which is exactly the same design that Aquila will be using, failed and collapsed and resulted in the death of over 250 people. The sad part is that this wasn’t the first time such a thing has happened in Brazil. It also happened in November of 2015, a tailings dam burst and killed 19 individuals. One would think the first time it happened, that the country would take measures to make sure it doesn’t happen again, but no, fast forward to January 2019, it happened again at another site. The mine is still in operation today and the mining company claimed that the structure provided inadequate drainage and couldn’t handle the high water levels. It is easy for us to brush it off as if Brazil is an apathetic country that does not care about its people.