On February 8, ArcelorMittal announced that after careful consideration, it decided to implement an evacuation plan for the community surrounding the Serra Azul tailings dam in Brazil, which was in a dormant state, and evacuated at the end. A 200-person community downstream of the mine dam.

The tailings dam is located in Minas Gerais, Brazil, with an annual production of about 1.2 million tons. It has been idle since October 2012 and is the only upstream tail in the ArcelorMittal mining portfolio. Mine dam.

Recently, ArcelorMittal commissioned a third-party tailings review team to conduct an on-site safety assessment of the tailings dam. Based on the results of the assessment, ArcelorMittal decided to evacuate all residents while conducting further tests. It is reported that when the tailings dam is active, the historical dam breaks range from 4 km to 5 km.

It is understood that the distance between the community and the tailings dam is about 5 kilometers. ArcelorMittal said that the evacuation plan is "a pure preventive measure."

At present, residents of the community around the tailings dam have moved into temporary housing. During further testing of the tailings dam by ArcelorMittal, these residents will be temporarily residing in temporary shelters until the safety of the tailings pond is 100% guaranteed.

Benjamin Baptista, CEO of ArcelorMittal Brazil, said: “It’s a tough time for companies and community residents. We apologize to the residents for their impact, however, This is the only correct decision we can make. Thanks to the understanding of the staff and the residents of the surrounding community, we will work hard to get the residents back home as soon as possible."