Mining firms agree to pay billions in compensation over Brazil dam collapse

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attends a signing ceremony of a compensation agreement for damage caused by the 2015 collapse of the Mariana dam (Eraldo Peres/AP)

Brazil’s federal government has reached a multibillion-dollar settlement with the mining companies responsible for a 2015 dam collapse that has been called the country’s worst environmental disaster.

Under the agreement, Samarco — a joint venture of Brazilian mining giant Vale and Anglo-Australian firm BHP — will pay 132 billion reais (£17.7 billion) over 20 years to compensate for human, environmental and infrastructure damage caused by the release of an immense amount of toxic mining waste into a major river in south-eastern Minas Gerais state, killing 19 people and ravaging entire villages.