At least 11 people are dead and up to 300 people have been reported missing after an apparent dam collapse in Brazil on Friday.

At least 266 Vale mining company employees are among the missing, a spokesperson for the southeastern state of Minas Gerais said.

A spokesperson for Minas Gerais state’s Civil Defense said 189 people have been rescued so far.

Vale, the company that operates the dame, is the country's largest mining company, according to The Associated Press.

"Part of the Vila Ferteco community has also been affected," the mining company said in a statement. "Rescue and care of the wounded is being carried out on site by the Fire Department and Civil Defense. There is still no confirmation as to the cause of the accident.

"The top priority of the company right now is to support the rescue efforts and to help preserve and protect the lives of direct employees, third-party employees and local communities," the statement added.

Nineteen people were killed when the village of Bento Rodrigues, also in Minas Gerais, was destroyed when a dam owned by Samarco, a joint venture by Vale and another Brazilian company, collapsed in November 2015. In the wake of that collapse, Samarco has provided $4.4 billion in compensation to the region over the past three years, according to Vale's annual report. </s> SAO PAULO (AP) — A mining dam collapsed in southeastern Brazil on Friday, flooding a nearby community and raising fears of widespread contamination.

Brazilian mining company Vale SA said in a statement that it didn't yet have information on deaths or injuries at the dam in Minas Gerais state, but said that tailings have reached the community of Vila Ferteco and an administrative office. Parts of the city were evacuated and local firefighters were rescuing people by helicopter and ground vehicles.

Local television channel TV Record showed a firefighter's helicopter hovering inches off the ground as it hoisted a woman covered in mud out of the sludge.

Another local TV channel showed a video shot by firefighters arriving on the scene showing an extensive area covered in mud.

President Jair Bolsonaro sent a tweet saying he lamented the incident and was sending the three cabinet ministers to the area.

Another dam administered by Vale and Australian mining company BHP Billiton collapsed in Mariana, Minas Gerais, in 2015, resulting in 19 deaths and dislocating hundreds from their homes. It's considered the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history.

Vale is Brazil's largest mining company. Two hours after the accident, Vale stocks fell 10 percent on the New York Stock Exchange. </s> SÃO PAULO -- Brazilian police arrested five people Tuesday in connection with the deadly collapse of a dam owned by iron-ore producer Vale SA, including employees of the mining company.

The number killed by the tide of mud and mining debris that swept through the burst dam Friday had risen to 65 by Monday evening, while close to 300 people are still missing and feared dead.

Police said two engineers working for a company hired by Vale to inspect the dam before its collapse were arrested in São Paulo. Three Vale employees were detained in or near the city of Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais state, where the dam was located.

Police also seized documents and other items belonging to the five detainees. Vale said in a note that the company is cooperating fully with investigators.

The dam collapse destroyed nearby offices and a bar belonging to Vale and debris smashed into parts of the small town of Brumadinho in Minas Gerais.

Write to Jeffrey T. Lewis at jeffrey.lewis@wsj.com and Paulo Trevisani at paulo.trevisani@wsj.com </s> Eight employees of Brazilian mining giant Vale were arrested Friday as part of an investigation into a mine tailings dam collapse last month that killed more than 160 people and left around 150 others missing and presumed dead, judicial officials said.

The arrests occurred in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais at the petition of Minas Gerais's Attorney General's Office, which said the operation is aimed at establishing "criminal responsibility for the dam rupture." </s> Around 200 people are missing after a mining dam collapsed in Brazil.

Around 200 people are missing after a mining dam collapsed in Brazil.

Brazilian mining company Vale SA said the flow reached the community of Vila Ferteco and an administrative office, where employees were present, which "indicated the possibility of victims."

The company said it did not have further information on deaths or injuries at the dam, located in the town of Brumadinho.

Parts of the city were evacuated and local firefighters were rescuing people by helicopter and ground vehicles.

There were no official reports of deaths, but the state fire department press department told The Associated Press that about 200 people were estimated to be missing.

Local television channel TV Record showed a firefighters' helicopter hovering inches off the ground as it pulled people covered in mud out of the sludge.

Photos showed the rooftops of structures poking above an extensive field of the mud, which also cut off roads.

President Jair Bolsonaro sent a tweet saying he lamented the incident and was sending the three cabinet ministers to the area.

Another dam administered by Vale and Australian mining company BHP Billiton collapsed in Mariana, Minas Gerais, in 2015, resulting in 19 deaths and displacing hundreds from their homes.

It is considered the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history, with 60 million cubic metres of waste flooding rivers and eventually reaching the Atlantic Ocean.

The rivers of mining waste are raising fears of widespread contamination. According to Vale's website, tailings are mostly made up of sand and are non-toxic. However, a UN report found that the waste from the 2015 disaster "contained high levels of toxic heavy metals". The 2015 collapse left 250,000 people without drinking water and killed thousands of fish.

Vale is Brazil's largest mining company. Two hours after the accident, Vale stocks fell 10% on the New York Stock Exchange. </s> Brazilian authorities have arrested five people in connection with a dam collapse that killed at least 65 people as it plastered part of a city with reddish-brown mud and mining waste.

The arrests came as rescue crews worked for the fifth day and searched for survivors or bodies of the hundreds missing.

Three employees of Brazilian miner Vale SA and two other engineers working on behalf of the company have been arrested, deepening a crisis for the company after another deadly disaster at one of its mines.

Vale said it was cooperating with the investigators probing the mining catastrophe, which is likely to leave a death toll of more than 300 people.

Two of Vale's senior managers at the Corrego do Feijao mine — where a tailings dam burst last Friday, drowning the nearby town of Brumadinho in mining waste — were among those arrested, according to Minas Gerais state judge Perla Saliba Brito.

The job of the third Vale employee was not immediately clear.

Two other engineers, who worked on behalf of Vale and are accused of attesting to the safety of the dam, were arrested in Sao Paulo, state prosecutors said.

State investigators issued a total of five arrest warrants and seven search warrants, on suspicion of murder, falsification of documents and environmental crimes, the judge's decision showed.

Offers of recompense from Vale have largely fallen on deaf ears.

Chief financial officer Luciano Siani said Vale was doing all it could, offering money to mourners, extra tax payments to local government, a special membrane to remove mud from the river and major investments to make its dams safer.

Yet residents in the devastated town of Brumadinho have been unmoved, watching in shock and anger as one dead body after another has been pulled from the mud.

The collapse of the dam in the hilly, pastoral region has caused 65 confirmed deaths so far, according to firefighters' count on Monday night, with another 279 people lost and likely dead.

This latest disaster's proximity to the Samarco breach has made Vale unforgivable in the eyes of many Brazilians.

"There's anger, sadness, everything," he said, holding back tears as he surveyed the destruction in Corrego do Feijao, a small hamlet within Brumadinho that gave its name to the mine at the centre of the disaster.

Mr Siani said the company would donate 100,000 reais ($37,350) to each family that had lost a loved one, adding the company would continue paying mining royalties to Brumadinho despite a halt in operations there.

The company was building a membrane to stop the flow of mud now snaking down the Paraopeba River.

A "bold" investment plan would also speed up the process of making dams more secure, he said.

Vale and Brasilia agree that regulations are broken

Prosecutors and politicians have not been impressed.

Brazil's top prosecutor said the company should be criminally prosecuted and executives held personally responsible.

Mines and Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque said the regulatory model for the mining industry was broken.

In a TV interview on Sunday, Vale CEO Fabio Schvartsman seemed to agree. </s> Brasilia, Jan 26 (IANS) A dam collapse at an iron-ore mine in southeast Brazil has left at least nine people dead and up to 300 missing, officials said.

The dam burst on Friday caused a sea of muddy sludge to spread across rural areas of Brumadinho city in Minas Gerais state, burying buildings and vehicles, the BBC reported.

Governor Romeu Zema said nine people were confirmed dead and there was little chance of finding people alive as rescue operations continued on Saturday.

According to reports, homes were destroyed in Brumadinho and rescue teams airlifted people covered in mud from the area due to damaged roads. It was not clear what caused the collapse of the dam, owned by Brazil’s largest mining company Vale.

Many of those missing were workers who were having lunch in the dam’s cafeteria that was buried by the sludge. The dam near the Feijao iron ore mine burst its barrier at around lunchtime on Friday, flooding another dam down below.

Leaked tailings from the mine spread into the nearby community of Vila Forteco, close to Brumadinho.

“Our main worry now is to quickly find out where the missing people are,” Brumadinho Mayor Avimar de Melo told television channel GloboNews.

On Twitter, President Jair Bolsonaro called it a “serious tragedy” and was set to visit Minas Gerais and fly over the disaster area on Saturday, after sending three ministers there a day before.

Built in 1976, the dam was one of several in the area and it was used to hold residue from the mine. With a capacity of 12 million cubic metre the site had been lying inactive for three years, according to Vale. It was not yet known how much waste was released.

The accident came just over three years since a dam burst in another town in Minas Gerais, that killed 19 people. </s> BRUMADINHO (Brazil)
• Brazilian rescue workers yesterday searched for roughly 300 missing people after a tailings dam burst at an iron ore mine owned by Vale, amid faint hopes of finding many alive, three years after a similar disaster involving the miner.

Nine people have been found dead after the dam burst last Friday, while nearly 200 people have been rescued, according to firemen running the rescue effort in the town of Brumadinho.

"Unfortunately, at this point, the chances of finding survivors are minimal. We're likely to just be rescuing bodies," Mr Romeu Zema, governor of the mining-intensive state of Minas Gerais where the disaster struck, told local press.

The death toll was expected to rise sharply, according to Mr Avimar de Melo Barcelos, mayor of the town of Brumadinho located near the mine. The cause of the rupture is not known.

Rescuers have mapped out four points where people could still be found alive, including a cafeteria buried in sludge around lunchtime, a police spokesman said.

Search dogs were being flown in from Rio de Janeiro.

All of those missing are Vale employees or contractors, the spokesman said.

Mr Renato Simao de Oliveiras, 32, was searching hospitals and with the police for his brother, who had worked for Vale for six years, and was despairing at the lack of information.

"I heard about it when I was at work. I called him several times but couldn't get a hold of him," he said. "We're lost, we don't know anything."

The state is still recovering from the collapse in November 2015 of a larger dam that killed 19 people in Brazil's worst environmental disaster. That dam, owned by the Samarco Mineracao joint venture between Vale and BHP Group, buried a village and poured toxic waste into a major river.

A state judge ordered Vale to freeze one billion reals (S$359 million) in its accounts, to be held against damage caused by the dam rupture.

President Jair Bolsonaro was set to visit Minas Gerais and fly over the disaster area yesterday, after dispatching three ministers there last Friday.

Vale chief executive Fabio Schvartsman said the dam that burst last Friday at the Feijao iron mine was being decommissioned and its capacity was about a fifth of the total waste spilled at Samarco.

He said equipment had shown the dam was stable on Jan 10 and it was too soon to say why it collapsed.

The Feijao mine is one of four in Vale's Paraopeba complex, which includes two processing plants and produced 26 million tonnes of iron ore in 2017, or about 7 per cent of Vale's total output, according to information on the company's website. Mr Schvartsman declined to say how output would be affected.

Operations at Samarco remain halted over new licensing, while the companies have worked to pay damages out of court, including an agreement that quashed a 20 billion reals civil lawsuit last year.

Federal prosecutors suspended but have still not closed an even larger lawsuit.

Iron ore prices are likely to rise in the wake of the disaster as there may be less supply on the market for the short term, said Mr Chris LaFemina, a Jefferies mining industry analyst. </s> Three employees of Brazilian mining company Vale SA and two contractors were arrested on Tuesday, prosecutors said, as a criminal investigation began into a dam rupture that's expected to leave a death toll of more than 300 people.

Vale said it was co-operating with investigators in the case, which has enraged Brazilians and raised fresh questions about the company's commitment to safety after a similar dam burst just over three years ago at a nearby mine it jointly owned.

Two of those arrested were Vale's senior managers at the Corrego do Feijao mine, where a tailings dam broke on Friday, hammering the nearby town of Brumadinho with a flood of mining waste — according to a court order seen by Reuters. The job of the third Vale employee was not immediately clear.

Two other engineers, who worked on behalf of Vale and are accused of attesting to the safety of the dam, were arrested in Sao Paulo, state prosecutors there said.

Minas Gerais state investigators issued a total of five arrest warrants and seven search warrants on suspicion of murder, falsification of documents and environmental crimes, a judge's decision showed.

The collapse of the dam in the hilly, pastoral region has caused 65 confirmed deaths so far, according to firefighters' count on Monday night, with another 279 people missing and likely dead.

Chief financial officer Luciano Siani said Vale was doing all it could, offering money to mourners, extra tax payments to local government, a special membrane to remove mud from the river and major investments to make its dams safer.

Yet residents in the devastated town of Brumadinho have been unmoved, watching in shock and anger as one dead body after another has been pulled from the mud.

Following a deadly 2015 tailings dam collapse just a few towns over at a mine half-owned by Vale, the disaster remained unforgivable in the eyes of many Brazilians.

"Vale is destroying Minas Gerais," said Robinson Passos, 52, who lost a cousin and friends in Brumadinho.

"There's anger, sadness, everything," he said, holding back tears as he surveyed the destruction in Corrego do Feijao, a hamlet within Brumadinho that gave its name to the mine at the center of the disaster.

At the headquarters for the local mining union, which lost more than one in 10 members by organizers' count, treasurer Jose Francisco Mateiro, blamed the company and authorities for putting him and his comrades at risk.

"They call it an accident but the design of those dams was premeditated," he said. "There have been warnings about all mining dams for a long time now."

Vale chief executive officer Fabio Schvartsman said the facility was up to code and equipment had shown the dam was stable just two weeks before the collapse.

"We are 100 per cent within all the standards, and that didn't do it," he said in a Sunday TV interview.

Siani said the company would donate 100,000 reals ($35,517) to each family that had lost a loved one, adding the company would continue paying mining royalties to Brumadinho despite a halt in operations there.

The company was building a membrane to stop the flow of mud now snaking down the Paraopeba River. A "bold" investment plan also would speed the process of making dams more secure, he said.

Prosecutors and politicians have not been impressed.

On Monday, a presidential task force contemplated forcing out Vale's management. Government ministers have said Brazil's mining regulations are broken. The country's top prosecutor said the company should be criminally prosecuted and executives held personally responsible.
A mining dam owned by the Brazilian company Vale collapses in Minas Gerais, leaving 248 dead and 22 people missing.