London (AFP) – Victims of a 2015 dam collapse in Brazil, for which Australian mining giant BHP has been found liable, attended a London hearing on Wednesday ahead of a trial to determine damages. In one of Brazil’s worst environmental disasters, an iron-ore mine run by a firm co-owned by BHP unleashed a deluge of toxic mud into villages, fields, rainforest, rivers, and the ocean, killing 19 people.
In November, the High Court in London found BHP “strictly liable” for the disaster following a mammoth trial, which could lead to billions of dollars in damages shared among 620,000 plaintiffs. “We are demanding what is owed to us,” Brazilian Indigenous leader Marilda Lyrio de Oliveira, from Aracruz in the state of Espirito Santo, told AFP on Wednesday. “We hope for a just outcome because the impact was enormous, the crime was enormous.”
Many people are dying of cancer, something that didn’t exist before,” added Lyrio de Oliveira, as she stood alongside about a dozen other victims attending court. “We have physical and mental health problems because we can no longer carry out our former activities.” The two-day hearing aims to set the timetable for the compensation trial, which could begin in October or the first half of 2027, the law firm Pogust Goodhead, representing the plaintiffs, told AFP.
– ‘Shattered our lives’ – Dissatisfied with the proceedings in Brazil, the victims turned to the British courts two years ago, seeking £36 billion ($49 billion) in compensation. At the time of the disaster, one of BHP’s global headquarters was in Britain.
“The suffering was so immense that it shattered our lives and interrupted our dreams,” Ana Paula Auxiliadora Alexandre, who lost her husband in the tragedy, told AFP. “For 10 years, we fought for justice. The fact that a mega-corporation has been convicted here in England makes me think that the British justice system is more diligent than the Brazilian one,” she added.
The mine was managed by Samarco, co-owned by BHP and Brazilian miner Vale. In a statement on Wednesday, the Australian group pointed out that it had already signed an agreement with the Brazilian authorities in 2024 to compensate the victims. It argued that “approximately 240,000 claimants” in the UK action should have their claims “discontinued” because they have already received reparations in the South American country. The trial at the High Court in London ran from October 2024 to March 2025.
© 2024 AFP
