Judgment in the London trial over liability for a 2015 Brazilian dam collapse - one of the largest civil claims ever lodged in England and Wales - will be handed down tomorrow morning.
Mrs Justice O’Farrell will give judgment remotely at 9.30am. It will decide whether Australia-based mining giant BHP, was responsible for the 2015 Fundão Dam collapse in Minas Gerais state, Brazil. The disaster killed 19 people and caused massive pollution to water sources.
The trial of Município de Mariana and others v BHP Group (UK) Ltd and BHP Group Ltd, started in October last year with closing submissions heard in March.
The collapse of Fundão Dam, operated by Samarco, a joint venture between BHP and Brazilian company Vale, released some 45 million cubic metres of tailings from iron ore mining. The collapse and flood killed 19 people and destroyed entire villages. Some of the toxic waste swept into the River Doce, a main water supply, and reached the Atlantic – more than 400 miles away.
Mining giant BHP denied all allegations against it. During closing submissions, it said it was not a direct or indirect polluter and not liable for the environmental disaster.
Class action specialist Pogust Goodhead, which represents some 620,000 claimants, has previously said the claim is worth some £36bn.
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Although the London claim was originally struck out following an application by BHP, in 2022 the Court of Appeal ruled the case should go ahead as there was a ‘realistic prospect of a trial yielding a real and legitimate advantage for the claimants such as to outweigh the disadvantages for the parties in terms of expense and the wider public interest in terms of court resources’.
BHP has argued throughout the claim that it duplicates matters covered by legal proceedings in Brazil and the work of the Renova Foundation, which has handled reparations in Brazil.
A potential second phase of the trial, to deal with damages, is scheduled for October 2026.
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