{"id":42302,"date":"2023-11-05T06:31:19","date_gmt":"2023-11-05T06:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/business\/bhp-aims-to-settle-over-brazil-dam-disaster\/"},"modified":"2023-11-05T06:31:19","modified_gmt":"2023-11-05T06:31:19","slug":"bhp-aims-to-settle-over-brazil-dam-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=42302","title":{"rendered":"BHP aims to settle over Brazil dam disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Stay informed with free updates<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description\"><span>Simply sign up to the <!-- -->Mining<!-- --> myFT Digest &#8212; delivered directly to your inbox.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=2c8c4fa5-b1a1-4c99-b984-80c54452c0fc&amp;concept-id=f95dd6f8-9ab9-407f-b8b3-9239815216b5\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>BHP, the world\u2019s largest mining group, has said publicly for the first time that it wants to reach a final settlement over a dam disaster in Brazil worth potentially tens of billions of dollars of liabilities. <\/p>\n<p>The Australian company is on the hook financially for the collapse of a tailings dam that stored mining waste at the Samarco iron ore complex in November 2015, near the town of Mariana in the south-eastern state of Minas Gerais. <\/p>\n<p>It killed 19 people and devastated villages and swaths of countryside because of an avalanche of mud that contaminated hundreds of kilometres of waterways.<\/p>\n<p>In the wake of the accident, which ranks as one of the country\u2019s worst environmental catastrophes, federal prosecutors filed a lawsuit demanding R$155bn ($32bn) in compensation from Samarco and its joint owners, BHP and the Brazilian miner Vale.<\/p>\n<p>BHP\u2019s legal director for the Americas, Emir Calluf, told the Financial Times that it aimed to soon come to an agreement with public authorities in the South American nation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe idea is to get a final deal in Brazil that settles everything,\u201d said Calluf, adding that negotiations were \u201cpretty advanced\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the right conditions were there and the legal certainty and releases, we would be willing to do a deal by the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The executive declined to quantify the possible compensation bill but said a deal could also include further reparation works.<\/p>\n<p>BHP also faces a case in the UK brought by 700,000 claimants seeking compensation for harm to homes and livelihoods. Their lawyers estimated maximum potential damages of \u00a336bn this year. A trial is scheduled for October 2024. <\/p>\n<p>Pogust Goodhead, the law firm behind the case, said that five victims of the disaster accused BHP at its annual meeting in Australia this week of misleading shareholders over the state of remediation of the environment near the dam. BHP said it would \u201ccontinue to defend the UK action and denies the claims in their entirety\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Calluf said BHP hoped that a settlement with Brazilian prosecutors would cover all outstanding legal cases: \u201cWe believe that the London lawsuit is duplicating efforts in Brazil.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Renova, a non-profit foundation set up to carry out repairs and provide financial redress under an initial deal in 2016 between the companies and public authorities, has so far spent nearly R$30.8bn. Funding obligations fall on Samarco but, if it is unable to meet payments, then BHP and Vale are committed to step in. <\/p>\n<p>Calluf said BHP had discussed reaching a potential final settlement with both Vale and Samarco, a 50-50 joint venture between the mining groups.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSamarco is and will remain the primary party at any settlement on this issue,\u201d said Calluf. \u201cBHP\u2019s role, as well as Vale\u2019s, is to supplement resources that may be needed for the company to fulfil the terms of a settlement \u2014 which will certainly be the case here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In parallel to Renova, Samarco has separately made R$2.6bn in direct compensation payments.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A resolution to outstanding claims from the Mariana disaster would help to turn a page on an episode that tarnished the reputations of the companies and prompted soul-searching in the mining industry. <\/p>\n<p>The rupture of the Fund\u00e3o dam released 40mn cubic metres of tailings \u2014 byproducts left over from mining that can contain toxic substances \u2014 sparking increased scrutiny over the safety of such structures.<\/p>\n<p>In 2019, a tailings dam owned by Vale burst near the town of Brumadinho in the same state of Brazil, resulting in 270 deaths. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/2c8c4fa5-b1a1-4c99-b984-80c54452c0fc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Mining myFT Digest &#8212; delivered directly to your inbox. BHP, the world\u2019s largest mining group, has said publicly for the first time that it wants to reach a final settlement over a dam disaster in Brazil worth potentially tens of billions of dollars of liabilities. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-42302","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BHP aims to settle over Brazil dam disaster | Innodebt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Mining myFT Digest -- delivered directly to your inbox.BHP, the world\u2019s largest mining group, has\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=42302\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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