[ad_1]
The UK Court of Appeal has ruled BHP cannot challenge a decision holding it liable for a deadly dam collapse in Brazil more than a decade ago.
Nineteen people were killed when a tailings dam attached to an iron mine in Mariana collapsed, smothering whole villages in toxic sludge and poisoning the Doce River in what is Brazil’s worst environmental disaster.
The mine was owned and operated by Samarco – a joint venture between BHP and Brazil’s Vale.
The British High Court last year ruled that the Australian mining giant was responsible for the collapse under Brazilian law.
The Court of Appeal overnight ruled it did “not accept that any of the grounds relating to BHP’s liability for the dam breach are reasonably defensible” and found “no basis” to BHP’s claim that the trial judge failed to properly consider the case.
Jonathan Wheeler, the head of Mariana Litigation at Pogust Goodhead, praised the decision, saying the court “has now joined the High Court in finding that BHP’s grounds of appeal have no real prospect of success – an emphatic and unambiguous outcome”.
“BHP remains liable for the worst environmental disaster in Brazil’s history, and it will not be given another bite at the cherry,” he said.
“Our clients have waited more than a decade for justice while BHP pursued every procedural avenue to avoid accountability; those avenues are now closed.
“We are focused on securing the compensation that hundreds of thousands of Brazilians have been owed for far too long.”
Responding to the decision, BHP insisted it had “supported Samarco in ensuring full and fair reparation, and that is why we are willing to defend the UK case robustly and for as long as it takes”.
“Following the stage 2 trial, further trials to assess damages are not expected to conclude until 2030 and beyond,” the company said.
BHP has already paid some $32bn in compensation to hundreds of thousands of claimants.
[ad_2]
