The global mining company BHP Group has been found liable for the deadly 2015 collapse of a Brazilian dam, in a landmark ruling that could pave the way for a multibillion-dollar payout.
The high court in London on Friday, Mrs Justice O’Farrell ruled that BHP was responsible for the collapse of the Fundão dam in Mariana despite not owning the dam at the time.
The collapse, which led to Brazil’s worst environmental disaster, unleashed tonnes of toxic waste into a major river, killing 19 people and devastating villages downstream.
In a judgment of more than 200 pages, O’Farrell said the risk of collapse of the dam “was foreseeable” and there had been “obvious signs of contractive, saturated tailings and numerous incidents of seepage and cracking”. She added that it “could have been averted”.
The ruling brings about 600,000 Brazilians a step closer to securing compensation of about £36bn. It addressed only the legal liability for the disaster. A second phase of the trial will determine damages.
The Australia-based BHP, which is also listed on the London Stock Exchange, said in a statement that it intended to appeal against the decision and would continue to defend against the UK group action.
BHP owns 50% of Samarco, the Brazilian company that operates the iron ore mine where the tailings dam ruptured on 5 November 2015, releasing more than 40m cubic metres of mining waste into the Doce River in south-eastern Brazil.
Sludge from the burst dam destroyed the village of Bento Rodrigues in Minas Gerais state and badly damaged other towns. The disaster also killed 14 tonnes of freshwater fish and damaged 370 miles (600km) of the Doce River, according to a study by the Ulster University in the UK. The river, which the Krenak Indigenous people revere as a deity, has yet to recover.
The trial, which began in October last year, was filed in Britain because one of BHP’s two main legal entities was based in London at the time. It began only days before Brazil’s federal government reached a multibillion-dollar settlement with the mining companies.
Under the agreement, Samarco, which is also half owned by the Brazilian mining company Vale, agreed to pay 132bn reais (£19bn) over 20 years. The payments were meant to compensate for human, environmental and infrastructure damage.
BHP had said the UK legal action was unnecessary because it duplicated matters covered by legal proceedings in Brazil.
Associated Press contributed to this report
