In a Thursday meeting, six of the 13 board members voted to give CEO Eduardo Bartolomeo another three-year term on the job, but six others voted against and one abstained, according to the sources.

One source said the situation was difficult to solve and a new vote had not been scheduled. Bartolomeo’s term ends May 26.

The Thursday vote was “inconclusive,” Vale said in a statement, adding that board members will meet again in coming days.

The board vote came less than a month after leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva tried to pressure the firm into making his former Finance Minister Guido Mantega its CEO.

Lula, who also recently criticized Vale for its response to major mining dam disasters in 2015 and 2019, has since backed away from putting Mantega in the CEO role, but the government is still seeking to influence the firm’s succession plans, sources said.

http://www.miningnewspro.com/En/News/628018/Vale board split on future of current CEO