Mining giant held liable for Brazil dam collapse

MINING giant BHP can be held “strictly liable” for a deadly dam collapse in Brazil, the High Court has ruled.

- JESS GLASS and NINA MASSEY

More than 600,000 Brazilians brought legal action against BHP Group after the collapse of the Fundao dam in November 2015. The trial started in London last October.

The failure of the dam, which held waste from an iron ore mine in Minas Gerais state in southeastern Brazil, killed 19 people and sent more than 40 million cubic metres of toxic waste into the Doce River in what has been described as Brazil's worst environmental disaster.

Lawyers representing the hundreds of thousands of individuals, as well as businesses, municipal governments, indigenous groups and faith-based organisations, claimed BHP is liable to pay compensation for losses resulting from the collapse of the dam.