A British judge on Friday handed down a verdict on Brazil’s biggest environmental catastrophe in recent history, blaming Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP for the 2015 Fundandan dam collapse in Mariana, Minas Gerais state. The judgment ends the bitter wait for more than 620,000 plaintiffs and establishes an unprecedented precedent for Brazilian victims to seek compensation abroad. court. The collapse dumped more than 40 million cubic meters of mine waste, destroyed entire communities, caused 19 deaths and the displacement of more than 600 people, and polluted from the Doce River basin to the Atlantic Ocean.
London’s High Court found that BHP exercised direct and indirect control over Samarco, the subsidiary responsible for operating the dam, and ignored technical warnings of structural risks years before it collapsed. The company announced its intention to appeal the ruling.
The ruling concludes the first stage of the trial and begins the process of determining compensation for the victims of the so-called Mariana catastrophe who lived in the Rio Doce basin. British law firm Pogast Goodhead, which represented those affected by the disaster, estimates that compensation could reach £36 billion (about €47 billion).
“We had to fight some of the world’s largest mining companies to protect our rights. It was very difficult and it was a 10-year battle, but we affected people did not give up,” Marcelo Krenac, an indigenous leader representing affected communities in the Vale do Rio Doce region, explained in an interview. “They (miners) took all our wealth and what was left was their waste. This victory shows that there can be justice if someone is willing to fight,” he says.
Over the past decade, various compensation agreements have been concluded in Brazil between mining company BHP and Brazilian Vale (also a co-owner of Samarco) and federal public entities. But thousands of victims of the tragedy, unhappy with the way the Brazilian state is holding companies accountable, chose to take part in the British trial. Last November, Vale and BHP were acquitted of criminal charges by a Brazilian court due to a lack of evidence regarding their responsibility for the dam collapse, a verdict that sparked widespread concern among advocates for the victims of the tragedy.
A class action lawsuit filed in London has paved the way for justice, making it the world’s largest environmental lawsuit.
In 2019, another mining dam owned by multinational Vale in the same region of Brazil, in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais state, collapsed, killing 270 people and burying them under waste mud.
For representatives of the victims of the Marianas tragedy, the outcome of the lawsuit could change the course of the environmental fight in the South American country. Tatiele Monique Estevan, a Mariana activist and representative of the Quilombola community, commented that she felt very mixed emotions after hearing the verdict while attending COP30 in Belém. “This was very symbolic for us because we can’t talk about climate justice without people being held accountable for the crimes they are committing on our territory, entering our territory and causing destruction,” he says.
“This is a victory for all the traditional towns and communities in the Doges Valley, and it confirms that traditional towns and communities will always remain involved in the fight, and we will also join the fight against the big mining companies to protect our territory,” Estevan says.
In its judgment this Friday, the court concluded that BHP was involved in Samarco’s strategic decisions, including expanding production without adequate safety guarantees. The ruling further shows that the mining giant had access to reports identifying instability in areas where destruction had begun, and was nevertheless allowed to continue operations.
BHP’s defense argued that the London criminal procedure merely replicated Brazil’s existing system, and that many victims (more than 600,000) had already been compensated. These claims were rejected by the court as it could not be shown that the Brazilian agreement automatically replaced the right to sue in the UK.
The court immediately confirmed that more than 620,000 plaintiffs had filed their lawsuits within the legal deadline, allowing them to proceed, and also rejected a statute of limitations claim that could have opened the door to new plaintiffs until 2029. Future compensation costs will also be borne by Vale, which is not a party to the London proceedings but has agreed with BHP to share any costs that may arise from judgments in other jurisdictions.
“This was a big victory for us,” said Felipe Hotta, owner of Brazilian law firm Hotta Adobosia. The firm is working with Brazil’s Pogust Goodhead to manage the relationship with the plaintiffs. The next step in the process, he said, is the categorization of damages, which defines the amount that must be paid to each individual and community affected. “Here in Brazil, we have an excellent team of lawyers who collect all data, evidence and questionnaires from each client in order to individually identify the damages suffered by each client,” Hotta explains.
A trial on damages is expected to take place only in 2026 and could last more than six months. Final decisions on these compensations are likely to be made between 2028 and 2029.
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