After an accident in Brazil
Court sentences mining companies to fines worth billions
January 26, 2024, 12:25 p.m
In 2015, a dam in a sewage treatment tank in Brazil burst. The toxic mud floods a village and pollutes a river. According to a ruling, the responsible mining companies now have to pay compensation – amounting to billions.
More than eight years after a devastating dam burst in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, a court has ordered the mining companies Vale, Samarco and BHP to pay the equivalent of 8.93 billion euros for non-material damages. The federal court in Belo Horizonte ruled on Thursday (local time) that the corporations had violated the human rights of the affected communities. In addition, there has been interest since November 5, 2015, the day of the disaster.
The dam collapse is considered one of the worst environmental tragedies in Brazilian history. On November 5, 2015, the dam of a treatment tank owned by the mine operator Samarco containing toxic substances from the mining industry burst near the town of Mariana. The toxic sludge buried the mining village of Bento Rodrigues, killing 19 residents.
Poisons also contaminate the Atlantic
The toxins also reached the Río Doce River and later into the Atlantic Ocean, 650 kilometers away. Thousands of animals died, hundreds of thousands of people no longer had clean drinking water, and tourism and fishing suffered losses on the Atlantic coast.
According to the court, the compensation money will be paid into a government-managed fund and used for projects and initiatives in the affected areas. The Australian mining group BHP was co-owner of the Brazilian mining operator Samarco together with the Brazilian company Vale.
In January 2019, a dam broke at a retention basin at a Vale iron ore mine near the small town of Brumadinho. 13 million cubic meters of toxic mining sludge poured into the area, killing at least 270 people. In addition to the high number of deaths, the dam burst also led to a natural disaster in the region.