US EditionBHP liable for 2015 Brazil dam collapse, UK court rules in mammoth lawsuit
London High Court held BHP strictly liable for environmental damage and negligence in the 2015 Fundão dam collapse, with claimants seeking up to £36 billion in damages.
- On Friday, London's High Court found Australia-based BHP Group liable for the 2015 Fundão tailings dam collapse in Mariana, Minas Gerais, Brazil, in a case valued at 36 billion pounds .
- Anglo-Australian BHP owns 50% of Samarco, and the High Court ruled continuing unsafe dam height increases caused the Nov. 5, 2015 collapse.
- Enough mine waste to fill 13,000 Olympic-size swimming pools poured into the Doce River, killing 19 people and destroying Bento Rodrigues, Minas Gerais, while polluting 600 km of the river.
- BHP Group said it will appeal the London ruling and continue fighting the lawsuit, citing Brazil compensation agreement last year worth $31 billion and nearly $12 billion spent, while a second trial is scheduled for October 2026.
- The case was filed in Britain because one of BHP's UK legal entity was based in London, with victims first filing the 2018 action; parallel proceedings include the Netherlands lawsuit and Brazil criminal acquittal in November 2024.
104 Articles
104 Articles
UK Court Finds BHP Liable for Brazil’s Worst Environmental Disaster
Mining giant BHP has been found liable for a dam disaster under both environmental law and the Brazilian civil code, in a significant ruling handed down by the High Court. The case stems from a deadly dam disaster in Brazil. On 5 November 2015, the Fundao dam in the south-eastern part of Brazil, operated by Samarco, a 50:50 joint venture owned by BHP and its peer Vale, failed, unleashing a deluge of thick, red, toxic mud that wiped out the villa…
The United Kingdom's justice passed its verdict this Friday on the biggest environmental catastrophe in Brazil's recent history, condemning the Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP for the collapse of the Fundão dam in the municipality of Mariana, Minas Gerais, in 2015. The decision ends with the bitter wait of more than 620,000 plaintiffs and establishes an unprecedented precedent for Brazilian victims to seek reparations in foreign courts. The co…
England high court holds Australia company liable for 2015 collapse of Brazil dam
England’s High Court of Justice on Friday ruled that Australia-based company BHP Mining was liable for the collapse of the Fundão Dam in Brazil over a decade ago, which caused the country’s worst environmental disaster, despite the company not owning the dam then. In delivering the long-awaited decision, Justice Finola O’Farrell held that the collapse, which killed 19 individuals, was reasonably foreseeable and rejected the arguments from BHP’s …
UK court finds mining giant liable for decade-old dam disaster in Brazil
A U.K. judge has found that the Australian multinational mining company BHP is liable for a 2015 dam collapse in southeastern Brazil. The incident killed 19 people and unleashed at least 40 million cubic meters (1.4 billion cubic feet) of toxic mine tailings onto downstream towns and waterways for 675 kilometers (419 miles). In […]
Inside Climate News
ecotopical.comAustralian Company BHP Found Liable for Damages in One of Brazil’s Worst Mining Disasters
A High Court in the United Kingdom has ruled that BHP was responsible for the Mariana dam collapse, after the company was acquitted of criminal charges last year in a Brazilian court. Claimants are seeking up to $47 billion in damages.By Blanca BegertIn 2015, a mine tailings dam failed near the town of Bento Rodrigues, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. The collapse spilled about 40 million cubic meters of iron ore mining waste into the lan…
Mining company accountable for dam collapse in Brazil
The High Court of Justice in London found on Friday that the English mining company BHP was accountable for the collapse of the Fundão Dam in the city of Mariana, in the Brazilian State of Minas Gerais, ten years ago. The company is a shareholder of Samarco, which was responsible for the disaster.
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