{"id":11558,"date":"2024-10-22T23:53:23","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T23:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/22\/samarco-nears-us31-7-billion-settlement-for-2015-dam-collapse-in-brazil\/"},"modified":"2024-10-22T23:53:23","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T23:53:23","slug":"samarco-nears-us31-7-billion-settlement-for-2015-dam-collapse-in-brazil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/22\/samarco-nears-us31-7-billion-settlement-for-2015-dam-collapse-in-brazil\/","title":{"rendered":"Samarco Nears US$31.7 Billion Settlement for 2015 Dam Collapse in Brazil"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>\tSamarco Minera\u00e7\u00e3o, along with parent companies Vale (NYSE:VALE) and BHP  (ASX:BHP,NYSE:BHP,LSE:BHP), has confirmed ongoing settlement negotiations with Brazilian authorities over the Fund\u00e3o dam collapse.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\tThe incident is recognized as Brazil\u2019s worst environmental disaster, and parties to the negotiations include public prosecutors, the federal government and the states of Minas Gerais and Esp\u00edrito Santo.<\/p>\n<p>\tThey are focused on a proposed settlement that could reach up to US$31.7 billion. The agreement aims to address both civil and environmental liabilities, while compensating affected individuals, Indigenous communities and businesses.<\/p>\n<p>\tThe Fund\u00e3o dam disaster occurred on November 5, 2015, when the tailings dam operated by Samarco in Mariana, Minas Gerais, collapsed, subsequently unleashing around 60 million cubic meters of iron ore tailings.<\/p>\n<p>\tThe toxic sludge inundated nearby villages, including Bento Rodrigues, and contaminated over 600 kilometers of waterways. It reached the Atlantic Ocean, decimating ecosystems along the way.<\/p>\n<p>\tThe disaster claimed a total of 19 lives, while also displacing thousands in the process.<\/p>\n<p>\tThe tailings, which contained heavy metals, polluted the nearby Doce River. This impacted local communities\u2019 access to water and crippled the region\u2019s economy, which primarily relied on agriculture and fishing.<\/p>\n<p>\tIndigenous groups, such as the Krenak, consider the Doce River sacred. Efforts to restore the river and the surrounding ecosystems have been slow, and a full recovery still remains elusive.<\/p>\n<p>\tUnder the proposed terms, Samarco will take primary responsibility for settlement obligations, with Vale and BHP acting as secondary obligors. The settlement includes an estimated 8 billion Brazilian reais specifically allocated to compensate Indigenous peoples and traditional communities affected by the disaster.<\/p>\n<p>\tThe collective funds will be used to assist impacted residents, primarily through residential resettlement.<\/p>\n<p>\tIn addition to the compensation, individuals opting into the settlement could receive 30,000 Brazilian reais each, with an additional 13,000 Brazilian reais for water contamination claims.<\/p>\n<p>\tWhile the companies have already invested around 38 billion Brazilian reais since 2016 in remediation and compensation efforts, they are expected to continue paying into recovery programs over the next two decades.<\/p>\n<p>\tDespite the progress in negotiations, not all lawsuits related to the Fund\u00e3o dam collapse have been resolved.<\/p>\n<p>\tInternationally, BHP is currently facing a \tclass-action lawsuit in the UK scheduled for later this month, where claimants are seeking additional damages for the environmental and economic harm caused by the disaster<\/p>\n<p>\t\u201cBHP will continue to defend the action which it believes is unnecessary because it duplicates matters already covered by the ongoing reparation work and legal proceedings in Brazil,\u201d BHP said about those proceedings.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<div>This post appeared first on investingnews.com<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Samarco Minera\u00e7\u00e3o, along with parent companies Vale (NYSE:VALE) and BHP (ASX:BHP,NYSE:BHP,LSE:BHP), has confirmed ongoing settlement negotiations with Brazilian authorities over the Fund\u00e3o dam collapse. The incident is recognized as Brazil\u2019s worst environmental disaster, and parties to the negotiations include public prosecutors, the federal government and the states of Minas Gerais and Esp\u00edrito Santo. They are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11559,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}