The January 25th, 2025 ceremonial unveiling of the Brumadinho Memorial in Brumadinho, Brazil, movingly commemorates the victims killed in the 2019 disaster. PENETRON ADMIX, a crystalline concrete admixture, was used to waterproof the memorial’s concrete elements exposed to the site’s high groundwater levels.

Located in Brumadinho, a city of over 40,000 inhabitants in the State of Minas Gerais of southeastern Brazil, the Brumadinho Memorial commemorates one of the worst disasters, both in lives lost and the environmental damage, in Brazil’s history – the collapse of tailings dam at the Córrego do Feij?o iron ore mine owned by the mining company, Vale.

“The collapse of the Vale dam in 2019 unleashed a toxic mudflow of iron ore tailings that tore through the Vale offices, a cafeteria during lunchtime, along with houses, farms, inns, and roads downstream, killing 272 people,” explains Cláudio Neves Ourives, CEO and Managing Partner of Penetron Brazil. “After a yearslong process to secure reparations for the victims’ families, Vale agreed to the construction of a memorial as a ‘public memory’ of the disaster.”

The Brumadinho Memorial, a US$ 1.5 million project designed by a team of Brazilian architects (Gustavo Penna, Firmino Siqueira, and Otávio Nascimento), is built into a gentle hill above the town, with a memorial chapel, commemorative area, and walkway partially sunken into the hill. Mixed into the surrounding grove of trees are 272 flowering ipês (or trumpet trees), which symbolize the lives lost in the disaster.

“Penetron collaborated with Supermix, the ready-mix concrete supplier, to ensure an optimal solution that met the project’s waterproofing and durability parameters,” adds Cláudio Neves Ourives.

PENETRON ADMIX, a crystalline waterproofing admixture, and PENETRON, a topically-applied cementitious waterproofing material, were applied to the reinforced concrete structures that were used in the reflective pools and water canals, as well as the structures exposed to the site’s groundwater. The resulting construction joints were sealed with PENEBAR SW-55A swellable waterstop strips.

Added to the concrete mix design during the batching phase, the active ingredients in PENETRON ADMIX and PENETRON generate a non-soluble crystalline formation throughout the pores and capillary tracts in concrete to permanently seal the matrix against the penetration of water or liquids – greatly reducing the permeability of the concrete and increasing long-term durability.

“Thanks to its ease of use and the elimination of any future waterproofing repairs, PENETRON ADMIX continues to enjoy growing popularity among architects and ready-mix suppliers across Brazil,” says Cláudio Neves Ourives.