Credibility Crisis: Brumadinho and the Politics of Mining Industry Reform

On 25 January 2019 hundreds of people perished when a tailings dam at an iron ore mine in Brazil failed catastrophically.Liquified waste suffocated workers in seconds, and filled the valley below with sludge, destroying lives and livelihoodsforever. The Brumadinho tragedy captured the world's attention, and triggered the Global Tailings Review, a multistakeholder process co-convened by the United Nations-backed Principles for Responsible Investment, the United Nations Environment Program, and the world's largest mining companies through the International Council on Mining andMetals. The review was intended to learn lessons from past failures to prevent future disasters. This book describes the politicsof the process from the perspective of two expert panellists who supported the independent chair in drafting a new globaltailings Standard. It provides an insider account of the review, its key achievements and its numerous flaws. Hopkins and Kemp document in forensic detail how the Standard came to represent a step change, yet also falls short. The book providesunique insights into the extent to which the mining industry wielded power to serve its own self-interest. It also describeshow different stakeholders in the process sought to counter the collective power of mining companies, and how other globalevents, from COVID-19 to the destruction of ancient Aboriginal caves in the Juukan Gorge in Australia, shaped the finaloutcome. The mining industry largely got what it wanted and in doing so limit edits ability to overcome its own crisis ofcredibility.