The State Environmental Foundation (Feam) declared the last tailings disposal structure built upstream at the mining company extinct. The National Mining Agency (ANM) had already removed the structure from its registry after inspecting the area where it was located and learning about the works carried out by the company with the aim of decharacterizing it. Previously, in 2021, the company had decharacterized the Somisa Dam, which was also built using the upstream method.
The process to decharacterize the Central Dam began in 2014, when Mineração Usiminas started mining the materials deposited in the structure, with reuse from beneficiation in the Ore Treatment Plant (ITM) Flotation. Between 2021 and 2022 the decommissioning, decharacterization, and revegetation works of the site were carried out.
With the conclusion of the decommissioning of the dams, Mineração Usiminas meets another of its ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) goals. Another commitment, the end of the use of conventional structures for tailings disposal, has been fulfilled with the inauguration of the filtration plant, the Dry Stacking, and the deactivation of the Samambaia Dam, in December 2021.
The revegetation will allow the area to return to its original form, being reintegrated into nature as it was before. At the site, 12 thousand seedlings of native species have already been planted, and the work continues with the monitoring of the plants.
Source: Minérios Magazine
