Exclusive: Vale eyed dam design changes in 2009 that may have prevented disaster

By Marta Nogueira and Ernest Scheyder RIO DE JANEIRO/HOUSTON (Reuters) - Brazilian miner Vale SA identified concerns around its tailings dams in 2009 and studied but did not implement several steps that could have prevented or lessened the damage from last week's deadly disaster, according to a corporate presentation seen by Reuters. A tailings dam, used to store the muddy detritus of the mining process, collapsed on Friday, killing at least 65 in one of Brazil's largest industrial accidents on record. The Brumadinho disaster, coming just over three years after a similar incident at another mine partially controlled by Vale, has fueled calls for a management overhaul and erased more than 70 billion reais ($18.61 billion) in Vale's market value

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