A London judge has ruled that the global mining company BHP Group is liable in Brazil’s worst environmental disaster, when a dam collapse 10 years ago unleashed tons of toxic waste into a major river, killing 19 people and devastating villages downstream.
Mrs Justice O’Farrell said at the high court that Australia-based BHP was responsible despite not owning the dam at the time.
Anglo-Australian BHP owns 50% of Samarco, the Brazilian company that operates the iron ore mine where the tailings dam ruptured on 5 November 2015, sending as much as 40m cubic metres of mining waste into the Doce River in south-eastern Brazil.
Sludge from the burst dam destroyed the once-bustling village of Bento Rodrigues in Minas Gerais state and badly damaged other towns.
The disaster also killed 14 tonnes of freshwater fish and damaged a 370-mile (600km) stretch of the Doce River, according to a study by the University of Ulster. The river, which the Krenak Indigenous people revere as a deity, has yet to recover.
About 600,000 Brazilians are seeking £36bn ($47bn) in compensation, although the ruling only addressed liability. A second phase of the trial will determine damages.
The case was filed in Britain because one of BHP’s two main legal entities was based in London at the time.
The trial began in October 2024, just 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 Brazilian mining company Vale, agreed to pay 132bn reais ($23bn) 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.
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