BHP faces fresh £5bn claim over Brazilian dam disaster

Blue-chip miner BHP Billiton is facing fresh legal action over the Samarco environmental disaster in Brazil, in one of the biggest law suits ever to be filed in an English court.

In 2015 a dam at the Samarco mine in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil collapsed, unleashing toxic waters and contaminated sludge into the environment. Nineteen people were killed, homes and settlements – including the entire village of Bento Rodrigues – were destroyed, land and rivers were contaminated and thousands were left without drinking water.

Samarco, which is jointly owned by BHP and Brazilian miner Vale, has always insisted it complied with Brazilian legislation. It has already paid out around $1bn on clean up and relief operations, and has been fined by the state government of Minas Gerais. It has also been in negotiations with local prosecutors and last month confirmed it was close to agreeing a final compensation package.

However, Tom Goodhead, a partner at American-British law firm SPG Law, which is bringing the English action, said: “Nearly a million Brazilian citizens affected by the disaster have either not been compensation or have received low financial settlements. The process of compensation has so far been in the hands of the defendants; this is about putting the claimants in control.”

SPG is seeking damages, thought to be around £5bn, in England because Anglo-Australian firm BHP is UK registered. It also said that English courts moved faster – and tended to provide greater compensation – than the Brazilian legal system. Assuming jurisdiction is accepted by the English courts, SPG will proceed on a no win, no fee basis

The action has more than 240,000 claimants, including several Brazilian municipalities, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mariana and members of the Krenak indigenous community.

BHP did not immediately respond to requests for comment.