A judgment on whether the Australian mining giant BHP is responsible for one of the worst environmental disasters of Brazil concludes in London on Thursday, with hundreds of thousands of victims who demand billions in compensation.
The collapse of the 2015 dam killed 19 people and unleashed a thick toxic mud flood in villages, fields, tropical jungle, rivers and the ocean.
The Fundao tailings dam in an iron mineral mine in the mountains of the Mines Gerais state was administered by Samarco, co -owner by BHP and the Brazilian miner is worth.
The hearing of the Superior Court of London, which began in October, heard evidence in the name of BHP and hundreds of thousands of claimants in relation to the collapse of the dam that can trigger a payment for value of billions of pounds (dollars).
At the time of disaster, BHP was worldwide headquarters in Britain and Australia.
If the court rules at the end of this year that BHP is responsible, an additional trial would be made to determine the amount of compensation.
– Waiting for verdict –
“I hope (for a ruling) towards the end of the second quarter, perhaps in June or July of this year,” Tom Goodhead, of the Pogust Goodhead law firm, which presented the case, to the AFP on Thursday.
“And then there is another trial … that has been scheduled for October 2026 in case it is necessary to prove the damage that people have suffered.”
Goodhead added that for victims, “responsibility” was even more important than “money.”
