Mining giants sign $30 billion settlement over Brazil 2015 dam collapse

Mining giants BHP and Vale have signed a deal with the Brazilian government to pay around $30bn (£23bn) in compensation for the Mariana Dam collapse in 2015 which caused the country's worst environmental disaster.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attended the signing ceremony on Friday.

Collapsing dams released toxic waste and mud, which flooded nearby towns, rivers and forests.

It killed 19 people, left hundreds more homeless and poisoned the river.

President Lula said: “I hope the mining companies have learned their lesson; they would have spent less to prevent the disaster.”

The dam was owned by a joint venture of Samarco, Vale and BHP.

Since the disaster, companies have set up a foundation to compensate people, which has already made billions of dollars in repairs. This included building a new city to replace one of the destroyed cities.

However, many people in the community still argued that they had not received justice or enough to rebuild their lives for nine years.

Separately to this legal process in Brazil, more than 620,000 people took BHP to court in the UK, where BHP is headquartered, in a trial that began earlier this week.

They are seeking about $47 billion in civil damages. Its first phase will determine whether BHP – as a parent company – was liable Some 70,000 complainants are also taking Vale to court in the Netherlands.

Both companies deny liability and argue that the foreign legal action is “unnecessary” and duplicates the legal process in Brazil.

Some members of the Mariana community told the BBC they had joined the UK's legal action after frustration that Brazil's proceedings were taking too long, but suspected the Brazilian settlement could only come after the UK's case was opened due to further international pressure.

In 2016, both companies agreed to pay about $3.5 billion in compensation at today's rates but talks were reopened in 2021 because of Brazil's judicial system's slowness in resolving disputes.

Friday's agreement covers their past and future obligations to support people, communities and ecosystems affected by disasters.

The companies agreed to pay 100bn reais ($17.5bn; £13.5bn) to local authorities over 20 years and 32bn reais to compensate and rehabilitate victims and repair environmental damage.

The remaining 38 billion reais is the amount the companies say they have already paid in compensation.