Vale and BHP propose compensation of US$ 25,000 million for the Mariana disaster in Brazil

The Vale and BHPowners of Samarco, presented a proposal before the Brazilian justice system to pay some US$25 billion in compensation for the collapse in 2015 of a dam in Mariana, in the state of Minas Gerais, leaving 19 dead.

The proposal contemplates past and future obligations for a total of “127,000 million” of reais, about US$ 25,000 million, for “a definitive repair of the damage“Vale indicated this Monday in a statement to the market in relation to information disclosed in the press.

The breaking of the dam Samarcowhich affected the town of Mariana, in the southeast of Brazil, claimed the lives of 19 people and caused the worst mining environmental disaster in the country, by dumping 40 million cubic meters of toxic sludge into the Doce River and The Atlantic ocean.

The mud tsunami devastated localities, including indigenous communities, and devastated the region along its 650 km route along the river to the ocean.

The proposal of the Brazilian and Anglo-Australian giants aims to achieve “social pacification“added the document signed by Gustavo Duarte Pimenta, executive vice president of Finance and Investor Relations at Vale.

But it must have the approval of all parties, or else new conditions will be negotiated.

The suggested sum of 127 billion reais includes 37 billion reais (about US$7.4 billion) in amounts already invested in aid and compensation until last March, Vale detailed.

Part of this amount was allocated to some 430,000 affected people, he added.

The proposed total also includes a cash compensation of 72,000 million reais (around US$ 14,400 million) “to be paid in a period certain” to the federal State, to the states of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo, and to the impacted municipalities.

Finally, the proposal adds 18,000 million reais (about US$ 3,600 million) in other obligations.

According to Vale, “were concluded” 85% of the resettlements of the impacted communities.

Last January the miners OKBHP and Samarco They had been sentenced by the Brazilian justice system to pay 47.6 billion reais (equivalent to about US$9.56 billion) for the damage caused by the disaster.

Added to that were the interests since November 5, 2015, when the tragedy occurred.

The sentence, an appealable ruling, contemplated “compensation for collective moral damages, due to the violation of the human rights of the affected communities.”

Another class action lawsuit (of more than 700,000 participants) is being processed in the British courts and is scheduled for October of this year to analyze the claim for billions of pounds against BHP.