Brazil’s Vale signs $7 billion settlement in mining disaster

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian mining giant Vale signed a settlement deal on Thursday to pay 37.7 billion reais ($7 billion) to the state of Minas Gerais, two years after a dam rupture in the city of Brumadinho killed more than 270 people. The settlement signed Thursday will compensate families of victims and fund projects in Brumadinho and throughout the state. The collapse of a dam at Vale’s iron ore mining complex in January 2019 had unleashed a destructive torrent of mining wast