{"id":378958,"date":"2025-11-14T19:04:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T19:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/378958\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T19:04:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T19:04:15","slug":"london-judge-finds-global-mining-company-bhp-group-liable-in-brazils-worst-environmental-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/378958\/","title":{"rendered":"London judge finds global mining company BHP Group liable in Brazil\u2019s worst environmental disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON (AP) \u2014 A London judge ruled Friday that global mining company BHP Group is liable in Brazil\u2019s worst environmental disaster<\/a> when a dam collapse a decade ago unleashed tons of toxic waste into a major river, killing 19 people and devastating villages downstream.<\/p>\n

High Court Justice Finola O\u2019Farrell said that Australia-based BHP was responsible, despite not owning the dam at the time, finding its negligence, carelessness or lack of skill led to the collapse.<\/p>\n

Anglo-Australian BHP owns 50% of Samarco, the Brazilian company that operates the iron ore mine where the tailings dam ruptured on Nov. 5, 2015. <\/p>\n

Sludge from the burst dam destroyed the once-bustling village of Bento Rodrigues in Minas Gerais state and badly damaged other towns. Enough mine waste to fill 13,000 Olympic-size swimming pools poured into the Doce River in southeastern Brazil, damaging 600 kilometers (370 miles) of the waterway and killing 14 tons of freshwater fish, according to a study by the University of Ulster in the U.K. The river, which the Krenak Indigenous<\/a> people revere as a deity, has yet to recover.<\/p>\n

A decade later, legal disputes have prolonged reconstruction and reparations and the river is still contaminated with heavy metals. Even as Brazil tries to define itself as a global environmental leader while hosting the U.N. COP30 climate summit,<\/a> advocacy groups say the dam collapse is a reminder of industry-friendly policies that have ecological protection. <\/p>\n

Victims of the disaster called the ruling a historic victory in seeking justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to cross the Atlantic Ocean and go to England to finally see a mining company held to account,\u201d said M\u00f4nica dos Santos of the Commission for Those Affected by the Fund\u00e3o Dam. <\/p>\n

Gelvana Rodrigues, whose 7-year-old son, Thiago, was killed in a mudslide, celebrated the step forward and said she wouldn\u2019t rest until those responsible are punished.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe judge\u2019s decision shows what we have been saying for the last 10 years: it was not an accident, and BHP must take responsibility for its actions,\u201d Rodrigues said. <\/p>\n

The judge agreed with lawyers representing 600,000 Brazilians and 31 communities in the class-action case who argued that BHP was heavily involved in the Samarco operation and could have prevented the disaster, but instead encouraged raising the dam to allow more production. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe risk of collapse of the dam was foreseeable,\u201d O\u2019Farrell wrote in the 222-page decision. \u201cIt is inconceivable that a decision would have been taken to continue raising the height of the dam in those circumstances and the collapse could have been averted.\u201d<\/p>\n

BHP said that it plans to appeal.<\/p>\n

The claimants are seeking 36 billion pounds ($47 billion) in compensation, though the ruling only addressed liability. A second phase of the trial will determine damages. <\/p>\n

The case was filed in Britain because one of BHP\u2019s two main legal entities was based in London at the time.<\/p>\n

The trial began in October 2024, just days before the federal government in the South American country<\/a> reached a multibillion-dollar settlement<\/a> with the mining companies.<\/p>\n

Under the agreement, Samarco \u2014 which is also half owned by Brazilian mining giant Vale \u2014 agreed to pay 132 billion reais ($23 billion) over 20 years. The payments were meant to compensate for human, environmental and infrastructure damage.<\/p>\n

BHP had said the U.K. legal action was unnecessary, because it duplicated matters covered by legal proceedings in Brazil.<\/p>\n

The judge ruled that those who were compensated in the settlement in Brazil could still bring claims, though they might be limited by any waivers they signed. <\/p>\n

Brandon Craig, BHP\u2019s president of Minerals Americas, said that nearly half of the claimants could be eliminated from the group because of settlement agreements they signed in Brazil.<\/p>\n

BHP shares fell more than 2% on the London market after the ruling and the company said that it would update its financial provisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON (AP) \u2014 A London judge ruled Friday that global mining company BHP Group is liable in Brazil\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":378959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[181838,4214,64,1613,10109,10106,356,181837,57,210,1612,362,2676,4217,8007,67,132,68,8933,17344,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-378958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-brandon-craig","9":"tag-brazil","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-central-america","12":"tag-climate","13":"tag-climate-and-environment","14":"tag-courts","15":"tag-finola-ofarrell","16":"tag-general-news","17":"tag-health","18":"tag-latin-america","19":"tag-legal-proceedings","20":"tag-london","21":"tag-south-america","22":"tag-trials","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-waste-management","27":"tag-waterways","28":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115549612560566019","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}