investigation
The Shaft 9 files: what SeverMin knew
Internal reports obtained by Northfocus show the tailings wall above the Bistrica River was flagged unsafe eleven months before it failed. The company disputes the documents. The regulator has opened a review.
Internal engineering reports held by SeverMin flagged the retention wall at its Shaft 9 facility as unsafe in September 2017, eleven months before the structure collapsed and sent bauxite sludge into the upper Bistrica River, according to documents reviewed by Northfocus.
The reports, prepared by the company’s own geotechnical contractors, recommended a full rebuild of the wall’s southern section and warned that continued raises would narrow the freeboard below the level set in the facility’s operating licence. Northfocus is publishing the findings in summary rather than in full, because the documents identify named engineers who remain employed by the company.
SeverMin said the reports were working drafts, that the wall met the standards in force at the time, and that it does not accept the characterisation of the facility as unsafe. Federal inspectors have opened a review of the licence history. The company’s preferred label for the spill, “Red Flood,” remains in use in its own statements; the federal and northern press call it the SeverMin Spill.