The Fort Worth Press - BHP, Vale cleared by Brazil court over 2015 dam disaster

USD -
AED 3.673051
AFN 67.000198
ALL 92.450129
AMD 386.974854
ANG 1.802123
AOA 912.000177
ARS 1000.362898
AUD 1.543841
AWG 1.8025
AZN 1.691881
BAM 1.857325
BBD 2.01886
BDT 119.48491
BGN 1.852673
BHD 0.37685
BIF 2897.5
BMD 1
BND 1.345641
BOB 6.908832
BRL 5.782302
BSD 0.999886
BTN 84.392794
BWP 13.725155
BYN 3.272208
BYR 19600
BZD 2.01548
CAD 1.402975
CDF 2866.000089
CHF 0.88797
CLF 0.035343
CLP 975.229905
CNY 7.230299
CNH 7.244025
COP 4483.25
CRC 510.721544
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 104.903343
CZK 23.953046
DJF 177.720183
DKK 7.06422
DOP 60.450092
DZD 133.619613
EGP 49.468904
ERN 15
ETB 122.050129
EUR 0.94716
FJD 2.275017
FKP 0.789317
GBP 0.78725
GEL 2.724958
GGP 0.789317
GHS 16.049785
GIP 0.789317
GMD 71.000218
GNF 8630.99963
GTQ 7.721894
GYD 209.184836
HKD 7.781925
HNL 25.060355
HRK 7.133259
HTG 131.382772
HUF 384.7675
IDR 15929.25
ILS 3.74008
IMP 0.789317
INR 84.46215
IQD 1310.5
IRR 42105.000021
ISK 137.989828
JEP 0.789317
JMD 158.287592
JOD 0.709103
JPY 155.788976
KES 129.506089
KGS 86.376501
KHR 4051.000265
KMF 466.495264
KPW 899.999621
KRW 1403.499466
KWD 0.30742
KYD 0.833207
KZT 495.71708
LAK 21944.999806
LBP 89600.000301
LKR 292.121707
LRD 184.097004
LSL 18.249887
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 4.870249
MAD 9.958049
MDL 18.112322
MGA 4655.000126
MKD 58.237769
MMK 3247.960992
MNT 3397.999946
MOP 8.01546
MRU 39.874993
MUR 47.190157
MVR 15.449695
MWK 1735.99992
MXN 20.46769
MYR 4.480502
MZN 63.901556
NAD 18.250431
NGN 1679.859944
NIO 36.779633
NOK 11.10269
NPR 135.033904
NZD 1.702273
OMR 0.385021
PAB 0.999905
PEN 3.804497
PGK 3.93475
PHP 58.856502
PKR 278.04999
PLN 4.095903
PYG 7808.968491
QAR 3.64055
RON 4.712597
RSD 110.634002
RUB 99.304003
RWF 1365
SAR 3.755981
SBD 8.383555
SCR 13.598198
SDG 601.498491
SEK 10.956202
SGD 1.343095
SHP 0.789317
SLE 22.680291
SLL 20969.504736
SOS 571.504424
SRD 35.3565
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.749122
SYP 2512.529858
SZL 18.249753
THB 34.870301
TJS 10.658475
TMT 3.51
TND 3.151967
TOP 2.342098
TRY 34.327599
TTD 6.789045
TWD 32.579498
TZS 2660.000424
UAH 41.219825
UGX 3669.445974
UYU 42.477826
UZS 12824.999812
VES 44.994212
VND 25400
VUV 118.722009
WST 2.791591
XAF 622.917458
XAG 0.032786
XAU 0.000389
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.753255
XOF 616.501263
XPF 113.349704
YER 249.849944
ZAR 18.199145
ZMK 9001.199107
ZMW 27.421652
ZWL 321.999592
  • RBGPF

    -0.9400

    59.25

    -1.59%

  • CMSC

    -0.0600

    24.55

    -0.24%

  • RYCEF

    -0.3200

    6.79

    -4.71%

  • BCC

    -2.2000

    140.35

    -1.57%

  • NGG

    0.2500

    62.37

    +0.4%

  • AZN

    -0.2500

    65.04

    -0.38%

  • GSK

    -0.7200

    34.39

    -2.09%

  • RELX

    -0.1700

    45.95

    -0.37%

  • VOD

    -0.0700

    8.68

    -0.81%

  • RIO

    -0.1900

    60.43

    -0.31%

  • SCS

    -0.1000

    13.27

    -0.75%

  • CMSD

    -0.0050

    24.725

    -0.02%

  • BCE

    -0.3700

    26.84

    -1.38%

  • JRI

    -0.0300

    13.21

    -0.23%

  • BTI

    0.0700

    35.49

    +0.2%

  • BP

    0.4800

    29.05

    +1.65%

BHP, Vale cleared by Brazil court over 2015 dam disaster
BHP, Vale cleared by Brazil court over 2015 dam disaster / Photo: © AFP/File

BHP, Vale cleared by Brazil court over 2015 dam disaster

A Brazilian court on Thursday cleared mining giants BHP and Vale, and their Brazilian joint venture Samarco, of responsibility over a 2015 dam collapse that caused the country's worst ever environmental disaster.

Text size:

The dam's rupture on November 5, 2015 near the town of Mariana unleashed a giant torrent of toxic mud that swamped villages, rivers and rainforest, killing 19 people on its way to the sea.

Scientists say the sludge caused "permanent" pollution on the river Doce and its coastal plain.

Brazil's government filed a criminal complaint against the mining companies and several of their executives over the spill.

But a court in Belo Horizonte, capital of southeastern Minas Gerais state, where the disaster occurred, ruled that state prosecutors had failed to prove that "individual behavior contributed directly and decisively to the collapse of the dam.

"And, in the context of the criminal trial, the doubt... can only be resolved in favor of the accused," the judge wrote.

Pamela Rayane Fernandes, mother of Emanuele Vitoria, a five-year-old girl who died in the tragedy, reacted with disappointment to the companies' acquittal.

"Although I expected this response from the Brazilian justice system, it was still a shock to know that in the place where we live, where we come from, they (the state) cannot give us protection," she told AFP.

- $30 bn in damages -

The ruling comes nearly three weeks after Australia's BHP and Brazil's Vale reached a deal with Brazil's government to pay nearly $30 billion in damages over the collapse of the tailings dam at mine operated by Samarco.

The payout is the biggest of its kind for an environmental disaster, according to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The companies agreed to pay 100 billion reais (17.5 billion dollars) to local authorities over twenty years and 32 billion reais ($5.6 billion) towards compensating and resettling the victims, as well as repairing the harm caused to the environment.

Thursday's court decision also comes a month into a mega-trial in London over BHP's role in the mudslide.

More than 620,000 complainants, including 46 Brazilian municipalities and several Indigenous communities, are seeking an estimated £36 billion ($47 million) in damages from the company, which denies liability.

The dam's failure released a torrent of over 40 million cubic meters of sludge, the equivalent of 12,000 Olympic swimming pools, which flowed through the Doce river channel all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, over 600 kilometers (373 miles) away.

It killed thousands of animals and left over 600 people homeless.

Scientists say the mouth of the Doce River and parts of the southeast Atlantic coastline are still contaminated with metals from the spill, affecting the area's population of fish, birds, turtles, porpoises and whales.

BHP and Vale had already agreed in 2016 to pay 20 billion reais (about $3.5 billion at today's rate) in damages, but the negotiations were reopened in 2021 due to what the government called their "non-compliance".

P.Navarro--TFWP