London – A lawyer argued on Thursday that the Global Mining Giants BHP Group should be held responsible for Brazil’s worst environmental disaster 10 years ago, when a dam dropped toxic mining garbage in a major waterway, killing 19 people and destroyed villages.
High Court Justice Finola O’Ferel said that she would later rule in a class action case in which the claimants are demanding 36 billion pounds ($ 47 billion) for loss from BHP in Australia. The case was filed in the UK as one of the two main legal institutions of BHP was located in London at that time.
BHP has 50% Summerco, a Brazilian company, operating the iron ore mine, where the Tailing Dam was broken on 5 November 2015. Enough mine waste to fill 13,000 Olympic sized swimming pools was dumped into the Dos River in South-Eastern Brazil.
“As a result of its heavy participation in the operation of the Samarko, BHP had several opportunities to stop the disaster, but failed to do so and instead kept permission and encouraging the dam, continuously emphasizing the continuous over -production by the summer,” Attorney Ellen Cho Choy said in its conclusion argument.
A defense counsel argued that BHP had not owned or operated the Fundo Dam and the company was not responsible for pollution. The company also said that the deadline for bringing claims was over before 600,000 Brazilians filed a lawsuit.
Mud from the burst dam destroyed the once-hurled village of Bento Rodrigues in the state of Minas Garis and badly damaged other cities.
The disaster killed 14 tons of freshwater fish and, according to a study by the University of Eulaster, damaged 660 km (410 mi) of the Dose River. The river, which the cranial indigenous people honors as a deity, have not yet recovered.
The test began in October a few days before the Brazilian’s federal government arrived at the disposal of a multivilian-dollar with mining companies.
Under the agreement, Samarco – which is also half -owned by Brazil’s mining veteran Vale – agreed to pay 132 billion Recycis ($ 23 billion) in 20 years. Payments were to compensate for the loss of human, environmental and infrastructure.
The BHP had said that the UK’s legal action was unnecessary as it reiterated the cases covered by legal proceedings in Brazil.
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