Brazil police arrest eight Vale employees in dam disaster

By Eduardo Simões and Marta Nogueira

SAO PAULO/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilian police arrested eight employees of mining company Vale SA as part of a criminal investigation into the causes of a deadly dam disaster, prosecutors said on Friday.

Police were also carrying out 14 search warrants as part of the probe, prosecutors in the mining state of Minas Gerais said.

The arrests and search warrants targeted employees of Vale as well as employees of German auditing firm TÜV SÜD, which had certified the dam as stable.

Vale confirmed the arrest warrants and said in a securities filing it was cooperating with the investigation.

The tailings dam in the town of Brumadinho burst on Jan. 25, killing at least 166 people.

The latest warrants followed the arrest last month of five Vale and TÜV SÜD employees, who were released by a higher court ruling on Feb. 5.

The Vale employees arrested on Friday were responsible for the security and stability of the Brumadinho dam and will be held in jail for 30 days, prosecutors said.

Among those arrested was Vale's Alexandre de Paula Campanha, who was involved in certifying the dam, according to TV channel Globonews.

Also arrested was his colleague Helio Márcio Lopes da Cerqueira, who was allegedly involved in email correspondence about faulty monitoring equipment at the mine, according to newspaper Estado de S. Paulo.

Neither Campanha nor Cerqueira could not be reached immediately for comment.

Chief Executive Officer Fabio Schvartsman said on Thursday, in response to questions from lawmakers, that the company's safety procedures had not worked.

Tailings are the mud-like byproducts, including finely groundrock particles, left over from mining and extracting mineral resources.

(Reporting by Eduardo Simões in São Paulo, and Marta Nogueira in Rio de Janeiro; Writing by Carolina Mandl; Editing by Mark Potter and Jeffrey Benkoe)