Brazil seals $30bn compensation deal with BHP, Vale over 2015 dam collapse
Brazil has signed a 170 billion reais ($29.85bn) compensation agreement with miners BHP, Vale and Samarco for the Mariana dam collapse in 2015, one of the country’s worst environmental disasters.
The agreement was signed on Friday.
A global anti-money laundering watchdog has added Lebanon to its “grey list” of nations that are subject to increased monitoring of financial transactions.
The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said on Friday that Lebanon had made progress on several recommended actions and would continue to implement reforms.
Lebanon has been in a financial crisis since 2019 that has been left to fester by the country’s leaders and now faces growing damage from Israeli air strikes and ground operations against the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
The grey-listing could potentially further deter investment in Lebanon and could affect the relationship between some Lebanese banks and the global financial system.
“Of course, we recognise the extremely grave situation that Lebanon is currently facing,” said Elisa de Anda Madrazo of Mexico, which currently holds the organisation’s rotating presidency.
De Anda said that being put on the grey list was not a “punitive measure” and was part of the process of helping nations develop action plans to make improvements.
The FATF also said it added Algeria, Angola, and Ivory Coast to its grey list.
Senegal was removed from the grey list and the FATF noted improvements, including in its ability to investigate and prosecute money laundering cases linked to corruption.
The FATF made no changes to its “black list” of nations against which countermeasures should be taken to protect the international financial system from money laundering and terrorist financing risks emanating from those countries.
Brazil seals $30bn compensation deal with BHP, Vale over 2015 dam collapse
The dam collapse unleashed wave of tailings in disaster that killed 19 people, left hundreds homeless, flooded forests.
Brazil has signed a 170 billion reais ($29.85bn) compensation agreement with miners BHP, Vale and Samarco for the Mariana dam collapse in 2015, one of the country’s worst environmental disasters.
The agreement was signed on Friday.
Keep reading
list of 4 items
Can Liz Cheney help Kamala Harris election campaign? Or will she hurt her?
Israel must stop ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Gaza, Jordan minister tells Blinken
Shipping firms to pay $102m settlement for Baltimore Bridge cleanup
“My life will never be the same”: Ta-Nehisi Coates on Israel and Palestine
end of list
The collapse of the dam at the iron ore mine owned by Samarco, a joint venture between Vale and BHP, near the city of Mariana in southeastern Brazil, unleashed a wave of tailings in a disaster that killed 19 people, left hundreds homeless, flooded forests and polluted the length of the region’s Doce River.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attended a ceremony in Brasilia to mark the signing of the agreement, with the government saying the first instalment of 5 billion reais ($878m) must be paid within 30 days.
The agreement provides for the payment of 132 billion reais ($23bn), of which 100 billion reais ($17.5bn) represent “new resources” that must be paid to public authorities within 20 years by the companies involved in the tragedy.
The government’s solicitor general, Jorge Messias, said the agreement’s resources will enable local authorities to compensate families for financial losses and fund environmental recovery in affected areas. These efforts will focus on the states of Minas Gerais, where the dam is located, and Espirito Santo, through which the Doce River flows to the sea.
The annual payments are scheduled until 2043, with values varying between 7 billion reais ($1.2bn) in 2026 and 4.41 billion reais ($7.7bn) in the last instalment.
‘Provide justice’
“These resources will allow us to provide justice in reparation to the families directly affected, and their impact will be felt over several areas, not only in the recovery of the environment but in the resumption of economic activities, health and infrastructure,” Messias said.
In a statement, BHP said it expected outflows under the agreement to align with its full-year 2024 Samarco provision of $6.5bn, and no update was required to the existing provision.
Friday’s agreement could end more than a hundred lawsuits against the mining companies in the South American country and possibly limit legal action abroad, three sources close to the matter said this week.
BHP is contesting liability in a lawsuit worth up to 36 billion pounds ($47bn) in London’s High Court over its responsibility for the Mariana disaster. The world’s largest miner by market value argues that the London lawsuit duplicates ongoing legal proceedings and reparation and repair programs in Brazil and should, therefore, be dismissed.
