Brazil to Toughen Mine-Safety Rules After Disaster

New regulations would order mining companies to destroy or substantially reinforce so-called upstream tailings dams

BRASILIA—Brazilian officials are preparing to toughen mining safety rules to require waste-dam owners of the type that failed last month, killing 150 people, to fix or close them, the mining regulator’s top official said on Friday.

“We need to put an end to this,” said the agency’s chairman Eduardo Leão. “These dams are ticking time bombs.”

The...