(Alliance News) - Anglo-Australian mining company BHP Group Ltd on Friday said that it has lost a GBP5 billion appeal in a London court case over the 2015 Samarco dam failure.
BHP Group Ltd and BHP Group UK Ltd, formerly BHP Group PLC, are defendants to a group action claim in the UK in relation to the Samarco dam failure on November 5, 2015. The group action seeks compensation for individuals, municipalities, private businesses and other institutions in Brazil.
The failure of the Fundao dam, which held waste from an iron ore mine in Minas Gerais state in south-eastern Brazil, killed 19 people and sent more than 40 million cubic metres of toxic waste into the Doce River.
Its collapse led to one of Brazil's worst environmental disasters, contaminating drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people and obliterating entire villages, with pollution eventually found in the Atlantic Ocean more than 400 miles away.
Lawyers representing almost 202,000 Brazilians, as well as hundreds of businesses, two dozen municipal governments and 15 churches, sought to take legal action against BHP over the disaster.
They claimed that BHP was liable for the collapse of the dam, which is owned and operated by Samarco, a joint venture between Brazilian iron ore miner Vale and BHP's Brazilian subsidiary.
Back in November 2020, the UK High Court ruled that the GBP5 billion claim was an "abuse of process".
Since then, the claim has been appealed and on Friday the Court of Appeal decided to allow the appeal.
BHP said that the judgement allows the group action to continue in the UK and overturns the earlier decision of the High Court.
The company added that it is considering whether to seek permission to appeal the judgement to the UK Supreme Court.
"The judgement is not a decision in relation to the merits of the claims made in the group action. It is concerned with the preliminary question of whether the group action can continue against BHP in the United Kingdom," BHP said.
The mining company said that its BHP Brasil arm remains committed to supporting the local remediation efforts in Brazil through the Renova Foundation. The foundation has provided around BRL9.8 billion, roughly GBP1.5 billion, in compensation and direct financial aid in relation to the dam failure, it added.
"BHP will continue to defend the UK group action, which BHP believes is unnecessary because it duplicates matters already covered by the existing and ongoing work of the Renova Foundation and legal proceedings in Brazil," the company said.
Shares in BHP were down 3.3% to 2,175.00 pence each in London on Friday around midday. In Johannesburg, the stock was down 3.0% at ZAR440.94.
By Sophie Rose; sophierose@alliancenews.com
Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
BHP Group (BHP)