The dam burst in a mine nine years ago was one of Brazil's worst environmental disasters: 19 people died, a river was polluted and many animals died. Now the operators have to pay high compensation.
Around nine years after the devastating collapse of the Bento Rodrigues dam in Brazil, the mining companies responsible have to make additional payments amounting to billions. The government signed the new agreement with the mining operator Samarco and its parent companies – the Brazilian group Vale and the Australian-British group BHP Billiton – for compensation worth 132 billion reais (around 21 billion euros) to the affected families, cities and communities.
According to government figures, the “Tragedy of Mariana” went down in history as the country's largest environmental disaster. The payment, part of which will run over a period of 20 years, is considered compensation for the damage to people, the environment and infrastructure. The government estimates that around 300,000 citizens will receive compensation payments.
Hundreds of kilometers contaminated
On November 5, 2015, a mudslide destroyed the town of Bento Rodrigues near the town of Mariana, killing 19 people. The dam burst in the retention basin of an iron ore mine in the state of Minas Gerais caused the disaster.
Around 40 million cubic meters of toxic wastewater escaped from the retention basin into the Doce River and later into the Atlantic Ocean, 650 kilometers away. The toxins contaminated the river – thousands of animals died and hundreds of thousands of people no longer had clean drinking water.
BHP and Vale had already agreed to a compensation payment of the equivalent of around $3.5 billion in 2016, but due to “unfulfilled” promises and slow processing by the judiciary, new negotiations were started in 2021.
Brazil President Lula was visibly moved at the compensation signing ceremony
“A lesson” for them Mining companies
“I hope that the mining companies have learned a lesson from this. It would have been much cheaper to avoid what happened, infinitely cheaper,” said Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
A minute's silence was held to commemorate the victims of the environmental disaster. Lula described the compensation agreement as the “most important in modern history” after a disaster of this kind.
Representatives of victims' organizations criticized the agreement. Many injured parties would not be adequately compensated due to missing documents about their lost belongings. In addition, the individual payments are too low. Lula referred to the negotiations between the judiciary and the companies that had dragged on for years. In recent weeks, the government has put pressure on the agreement to be reached before a trial begins in England.
Legal proceedings in Great Britain
Additional legal proceedings are underway in the UK following a class action lawsuit by more than 620,000 affected people, including communities, companies and several indigenous peoples. They are demanding damages of 36 billion pounds (43 billion euros) from the raw materials company BHP.
However, experts believe that the agreement now being negotiated in Brazil weakens the prospects of success in England. A verdict is expected there in mid-2025.
The settlement in Brazil represents just a first step in an ongoing fight for justice, said plaintiffs' attorney Tom Goodhead. “Our legal action will hold BHP publicly to account and set a precedent that will make it more difficult for multinational companies generally to neglect their responsibilities to the communities in which they operate.”
The mining companies had already been sentenced to billions in fines by a Brazilian court at the beginning of the year. The agreement now reached with the government still needs to be approved by the Brazilian Supreme Court. It does not mean that the ongoing lawsuits against the companies will be overturned, BHP explained.
Another dam burst with 270 deaths
So far, no one in Brazil has been personally convicted of the disaster. In 2016, 22 people were originally charged. In addition to environmental crimes, they were also accused of murder. There are now only seven people who have to answer for environmental crimes.
In January 2019 there was another incident in a mine. Another dam broke at a retention basin at a Vale iron ore mine near the small town of Brumadinho, also in the state of Minas Gerais. 13 million cubic meters of toxic mining sludge poured into the area, killing at least 270 people. The dam burst also led to a natural disaster in the region.
