Largest Class Action Suit in English History Set to Launch Over Brazil Mining Disaster

Debris of a house in the Bento Rodrigues district that was covered with mud after a dam owned by Vale SA and BHP Billiton Ltd burst, in Mariana, Brazil, on Nov. 6, 2015. Reuters/Ricardo Moraes/File Photo

An Anglo-Australian mining company is being taken to court later this month over a mining disaster in Brazil, in what will be the largest class action suit in English legal history.

BHP, a mining giant listed on the London Stock Exchange, will defend itself against allegations of negligence and attempt to avoid paying damages that could amount to 33.6 billion pounds ($44 billion) at a trial due to start on Oct. 21.

The suit relates to the company’s role in the 2015 collapse of the Fundão tailings dam in Brazil, which killed 19 people and devastated the area in what is widely accepted to be one of the worst environmental disasters to ever befall the South American nation.

BHP owned a 50 percent stake in the company responsible for managing the dam, which the prosecution is set to argue makes it partially responsible for the disaster.

The lawsuit, which is made up of more than 620,000 claimants, is believed to be the largest of its kind to ever be heard in England.

Claimants include more than half a million individuals, 46 municipalities, 2,000 businesses, and 65 faith-based institutions.

The law firm bringing the action, Pogust Goodhead, is set to argue that BHP, which was in a joint venture with the Brazilian iron-ore mining company Vale, was negligent because despite being aware of the risks of the dam collapsing, it funded its expansion.

The trial is expected to last 12 weeks.

BHP has stated that it would fight the legal action, with a company spokesperson telling The Guardian: “The Fundão dam collapse was a tragedy and our deepest sympathies remain with the impacted families and communities.

“As a non-operating joint-venture partner in Samarco, BHP Brasil does not have operational or day-to-day control of the business. BHP did not own or operate the dam or any related facilities.”

Earlier this month, Brazilian Indigenous groups affected by the catastrophe went to Australia to lobby members of Parliament and environmental groups ahead of the beginning of the London court case.

BHP is listed on both the London and the Australian stock exchanges, with its headquarters located in Melbourne, Australia.

It was the third-largest mining company in the world by revenue in 2023, after Glencore and Jiangxi Copper, according to Investopedia.

A separate case relating to the disaster is already underway in the Netherlands.

That is being brought against BHP’s partners in the venture, Vale SA and Samarco Iron Ore Europe, with the complainants seeking $4 billion in compensation.

Last month, the Brazilian government stated that it was in talks on a potential $18 billion payout from companies involved in the collapse.

When the Fundão tailings dam at the Samarco Mariana Mining Complex near Mariana, Minas Gerais, collapsed nine years ago, it unleashed a torrent of toxic leftovers from the mining process (known as “tailings”) that killed 19 people, devastated the villages of Bento Rodrigues and Paracatu de Baixo, left hundreds homeless, flooded forests, and polluted the Doce River.

According to a U.N. report, the tailings slurry traveled 390 miles downriver, eventually reaching the Atlantic Ocean.

Along with the deaths, the “entire fish populations—at least 11 tons—were killed immediately when the slurry buried them or clogged their gills”, according to the report, 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.

The Epoch Times contacted BHP for comment but didn’t receive a reply by publication time.

Reuters contributed to this report.