A dam failure in 2015 released tons of toxic waste into the main river, killing 19 people and devastating villages downstream.
Published November 14, 2025
A British judge has ruled that global mining giant BHP Group is responsible for Brazil’s worst environmental disaster in a case that plaintiffs’ lawyers previously valued at up to 36 billion pounds (about 4.8 trillion yen).
High Court Judge Finola O’Farrell said on Friday that Australia-based BHP was liable, even though it did not own the dam at the time.
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A dam failure 10 years ago released tons of toxic waste into the main river, killing 19 people and destroying villages downstream.
Anglo-Australian company BHP owns a 50% stake in Samarco, a Brazilian company that operates the iron ore mine where the tailing dam collapsed on November 5, 2015. Enough mining waste has flowed into the Doce River in southeastern Brazil to fill 13,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Sludge from the collapsed dam destroyed the once-bustling village of Bento Rodríguez in Minas Gerais state and severely damaged other towns, leaving thousands homeless and flooding forests.
The disaster killed 14 tonnes of freshwater fish and polluted 600 kilometers (370 miles) of the River Doce, according to a study by Britain’s Ulster University. The river, which is worshiped as a god by the Kurenak First Nation, has not yet recovered.
Mr O’Farrell said in his judgment that continuing to raise the dam height when it was unsafe was the “direct and proximate cause” of the dam failure, meaning BHP was liable under Brazilian law.
BHP has appealed the ruling and said it will continue to pursue litigation. Brandon Craig, president of BHP’s Mineral Americas, said in a statement that 240,000 plaintiffs in the London case “have already been compensated in Brazil.”
The case was brought in the UK because one of BHP’s two main legal entities was based in London at the time.
The case began in October 2024, days before Brazil’s federal government reached a multibillion-dollar settlement with the mining company.
Under the agreement, Samarco, which is also half-owned by Brazilian mining giant Vale, agreed to pay 132 billion reais ($23 billion) over 20 years. The payments were intended to compensate for human, environmental and infrastructure damage.
BHP had argued that the UK action was unnecessary because it overlapped with the subject matter of the proceedings in Brazil.
