Vale has said that the Minas Gerais Court of Justice has ordered it to halt operations at its Brucutu iron ore mining complex.
The order, described as monocratic, reverses a lower court decision that had allowed activities to resume at the mine.
Consequently, Vale said in a statement on Tuesday that wet processing operations at Brucutu were “stopped following the ruling”.
Vale said the Laranjeiras dam and all the other geotechnical structures of Brucutu have valid declarations of stability (DCE) issued by external auditors in March 2019.
The company also said it expects its 2019 sales of iron ore and pellets to be at the low to mid-end of its previous estimate of 307 million tonnes to 332 million tonnes.
Vale’s Brumadinho tailing dam at the Feijao iron-ore mine collapsed on 25 January 2019, resulting in more than 300 deaths.
It quickly closed 50 tailing dams for testing after the breach, wiping 40 million tonnes of the iron ore off a market already hurt by US-China trade tensions.
News of the latest setback came as Vale confirmed that Eduardo Bartolomeo has been made permanent chief executive of the troubled mining giant.
His appointment was confirmed on Monday after a board of directors meeting following input from international recruiting company Spencer Stuart.
“I am committed to leading Vale through the most challenging moment in its history,” he said in a statement issued by the miner.
“We will never forget Brumadinho and we will spare no effort in alleviating the suffering and repairing the losses of the impacted communities.”
Bartolomeo is a senior executive who has worked at Vale for 10 years, having previously held the position of executive director of logistics, integrated operations of bulk commodities, and most recently as executive director of base metals in Canada.
He was also a member of Vale's board of directors and financial committee between 2016 and 2017.
Fabio Schvartsman, the former chief executive, remains with the company as an executive director on a leave from office with all his responsibilities reassigned.
