FILE PHOTO: Freeport McMoRan Chief Executive Officer Richard Adkerson gestures during a press conference with Indonesia’s Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan (not pictured) at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources in Jakarta, Indonesia August 29, 2017. REUTERS/Darren Whiteside
HOLLYWOOD, Fla (Reuters) – Freeport-McMoRan Inc Chief Executive Richard Adkerson said on Monday his company has been investing heavily to mitigate any danger from tailings dams and is “comfortable” with engineering designs in place at existing dams.
“Early on, we recognized this as a major risk area for our company,” Adkerson said at an industry conference in Florida. “Fundamentally, we’re comfortable with the system that we have been putting in place in managing this risk.”
Adkerson’s comments come a month after a Brazilian tailings dam controlled by rival Vale collapsed, killing more than 300.
Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Steve Orlofsky
