(Reuters) – Australia’s BHP said on Friday it had reached an agreement with Brazilian miner Vale over proceedings in the United Kingdom related to damage caused by a 2015 dam collapse that killed 19 people in Brazil.
BHP Group (UK) Ltd and its parent BHP are defendants to a group action claim in the English High Court, brought by more than 600,000 claimants seeking damages for the Fundão Dam failure in 2015.
BHP and Vale will each pay 50% of any amount potentially payable to the claimants in the UK proceedings, the Netherlands proceedings, and other proceedings in Brazil covered in the agreement, the company said on Friday.
It reinforces the framework agreement signed in 2016 for BHP Brasil and Vale to each contribute 50% to the funding of the Renova Foundation, which was set up to ensure full and fair remediation for the damages caused in the dam collapse.
More than 720,000 Brazilians are suing the two companies over the collapse of the dam, which was owned and operated by their Samarco joint venture.
Lawyers representing claimants taking legal action over Brazil’s worst environmental disaster had filed an injunction in late June against Vale and BHP for “trying to derail” a potential 36 billion-pound ($46.67 billion) London lawsuit.
($1 = 0.7714 pounds)
(Reporting by Roushni Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Sriraj Kalluvila)
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