Mining giants sign $30 billion deal over 2015 Brazil dam collapse

President Lula said: “I hope the mining companies have learned their lesson; it would have cost them less to prevent a disaster.”

The dam was owned by Samarco, a joint venture between Vale and BHP.

After the disaster, the companies created a fund to compensate people, which has already carried out billions of dollars in repair work. This included building a new city to replace one of the destroyed cities.

However, many people in the community still claim they have not received justice or enough money to rebuild their lives nine years later.

In addition to these legal proceedings in Brazil, more than 620,000 people sued BHP in the UK, where BHP was headquartered at the time, in a trial that began earlier this week.

In the civil suit, they are seeking about $47 billion in damages. The first step will be to determine whether BHP, as the parent company, is liable. Some 70,000 claimants have also taken Vale to court in the Netherlands.

Both companies deny responsibility and say the foreign lawsuit is “unnecessary” and duplicates legal proceedings in Brazil.