Statement

Vallourec Tubos do Brasil – Mining Unit – hereby informs that, on April 7th, 2021, changed the criticality level of the structure called Santa Bárbara dam, located in the Pau Branco Mine, from Level 0 to Level 1.

This change took place after a joint inspection with a team from the Brazilian National Mining Agency (ANM), which no longer accepted the pumping solution, which until such date had been accepted by ANM. Therefore, and in strict compliance with current Brazilian legal rules, Vallourec Brazil changed the criticality to Level 1.

The Santa Bárbara dam is a rainwater (sediment) control structure and no type of waste from the production process is deposited there.

Vallourec states that the Santa Bárbara dam has no damage at its physical structure, and it does not present any risks to the population and that Vallourec carries out daily inspections in accordance with the legislation. In this sense, it is worth mentioning that, according to the ANM protocol for Level 1 criticality, it is not necessary to remove the population downstream from the structure. Actions are ongoing in order to return the structure to Level 0 as soon as possible. The company points out that the activation of Level 1 does not compromise the normality of its operations.

Vallourec Mineração also informs that, since November 2015, all waste from its mining production process is filtered using an equipment called Dry Stacking, where the water is removed out the waste and the waste, after being filtered, is disposed dry in waste piles, using the technique called dry stacking and co-disposition. Thus, the need for tailing dam at Vallourec Brazil Mining Unit was eliminated more than five years ago.