The Brazilian government confirmed it was in talks on a potential $18 billion payout from three mining firms involved in a deadly 2015 dam collapse, on Monday.
The government added that the deal could also involve further repair work by the companies themselves.
Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Brazilian mining giant Vale and Australia’s BHP, together with their joint venture Samarco, could soon reach a deal to pay around 100 billion reais ($18.2 billion) in additional funds for repairs, with final terms of the agreement expected in October.
Energy and Mining Minister Alexandre Silveira confirmed discussions were underway in a Monday interview with the Brazilian radio broadcaster Itatiaia, which is based in Minas Gerais state, where the toxic spill occurred.
Along with the reparations under discussion, he said the talks also covered some 30 billion reais ($5.5 billion) in some remedying measures the firms would implement themselves, such as removing toxic mining waste from a local river.
The collapse of the dam at a Samarco iron ore mine near the city of Mariana nine years ago unleashed a torrent of toxic tailings (leftovers from the mining process) that killed 19 people, left hundreds homeless, flooded forests and polluted the Doce River.
The miners have already paid out some 37 billion reais ($6 billion) on remediation and compensation for the collapse of the tailings dam, Silveira said.
Samarco built the tailings dam to hold the waste resulting from the extraction of iron ore.
A previous proposal from the miners, which was not fully accepted by officials, had set an 82 billion reais ($15 billion) payout to authorities in new resources plus another 21 billion reais in repairs the miners would implement.
Vale did not mention the amount of a potential deal in a response to a request for comment on Monday but repeated that it expected to reach a deal in October.
BHP and Samarco, meanwhile, confirmed the talks were ongoing in separate statements, adding they believe an agreement could be reached soon.
The Mariana dam disaster occurred on Nov. 5 2015, when the Fundão tailings dam at the Germano iron ore mine of the Samarco Mariana Mining Complex near Mariana, Minas Gerais, suffered a catastrophic failure, resulting in flooding that devastated the villages of Bento Rodrigues and Paracatu de Baixo.
Class action lawsuits relating to the disaster are currently in progress in both Britain and the Netherlands.
The Dutch case is being brought against Vale SA and Samarco Iron Ore Europe. It is seeking $4 billion in compensation.
The British compensation case against BHP is representing 700,000 claimants seeking damages of up to $48 billion, making it the largest opt-in class action lawsuit ever brought in the UK.
According to a United Nations report, the tailings slurry traveled 390 miles downriver, eventually reaching the Atlantic Ocean.
Along with the 19 who people were killed, the report said that “entire fish populations – at least 11 tons – were killed immediately when the slurry buried them or clogged their gills”, and “the force of the mudflow destroyed 1,469 hectares of riparian forest.”
The extent of the damage caused by the dam collapse is the largest ever recorded, with pollutants found to have spread along 415 miles of watercourses.
