BHP and Vale told to pay US$9.7bn for Samarco dam disaster

BHP Group Ltd (LSE:BHP, ASX:BHP) and its Brazilian partner Vale have been ordered to pay US$9.7 billion (R47.6 billion) in compensation for the Samarco disaster in 2015. Nineteen people were killed after the tailings dam at the mine failed, flooding vast areas of Minas Gerais state with contaminated mud and polluting lakes and rivers to the sea. A federal court in Brazil ruled that Samarco, the joint venture company owned by BHP and Vale that ran the mine, was liable for “moral damages” and emotional distre ...