Vale to allow use of its pit for Samarco tailings

Brazilian iron-ore miner Vale said on Tuesday it signed a non-binding agreement with BHP Billiton to allow the use of its Timbopeba pit to deposit tailings from iron miner Samarco when that company restarts operations. The deal, which will become definitive pending commercial negotiations and government approvals, is the latest step for Samarco to resume operations suspended in 2015 after the collapse of a dam holding mining waste, or tailings. The rupture killed 19 people and caused Brazil's worst environmental disaster.