Key Points
- BHP and Brazilian company Vale have reached a $45 billion settlement with Brazil over the 2015 Mariana dam collapse.
- The 2015 collapse at an iron ore mine killed 19 people, displaced hundreds, and caused flooding and pollution.
- BHP is contesting liability in a lawsuit worth up to $71 billion in London over its responsibility for the disaster.
The collapse of the dam at the iron ore mine, near the city of Mariana in southeastern Brazil, unleashed a wave of tailings in a disaster that killed 19 people, left hundreds homeless, flooded forests and polluted the length of the Doce River. It was one of the country’s worst environmental disasters.
BHP CEO Mike Henry said the collapse of the dam in 2015 “was, and remains, an immense tragedy”. Source: AAP, SIPA USA / Fotoarena
The government’s solicitor-general, Jorge Messias, said the resources provided in the agreement would allow local authorities to repair the financial losses of families hit by the tragedy and pay for environmental recovery actions in affected areas in the states of Minas Gerais, where the dam is located, and Espirito Santo through which the Doce River flows to the sea.
The dam collapse was one of Brazil’s worst environmental disasters. Source: AAP, Getty / Douglas Magno
The annual payments will be scheduled until 2043, with values varying between 7 billion reais in 2026 and 4.41 billion reais in the last instalment.
BHP, in a statement, said it expected outflows under the agreement to align with its full-year 2024 Samarco provision of $US6.5 billion ($9.8 billion), and no update was required to the existing provision at this time.
Nineteen people were killed in the Mariana dam disaster. Source: EPA / Andy Rain
Friday’s agreement could end more than a hundred lawsuits against the mining companies in the South American country and possibly limit legal action abroad, three sources close to the matter said this week.
The world’s biggest miner by market value says the London lawsuit duplicates legal proceedings and reparation and repair programs in Brazil and should be thrown out.