A British court has told the huge BHP Group mining company, formerly in partnership with Vale, to back off from paying for the legal challenges against a lawsuit by Brazilian citizens over the collapse of the Mariana tailings dam that occurred in 2015.
Reuters news service reported Tuesday that London's High Court ruled that BHP Group must stop funding the legal battle against numerous Brazilian municipalities that are suing the company. The lawsuit represents more than 700,000 Brazilian citizens.
At the time of the deadly collapse, the Mariana dam was owned and operated by its Samarco joint venture with Brazilian iron ore miner Vale.
The dam collapse caused a wave of toxic tailings that killed 19 people, left hundreds homeless, flooded forests and polluted the entire length of the Doce River, said the report from Reuters.
The dam failure is considered the worst environmental disaster in the history of Brazil.
In June the mining companies named in the lawsuit filed a motion in Brazil's Supreme Court seeking to stop the municipalities from continuing the London case on the grounds that doing so represented a threat to Brazil's sovereignty.
Earlier this month, BHP reached a deal with Vale to split equally the cost of any damages related to the legal proceedings in Britain, for which it will continue to be the defendant, said Reuters.
The lawsuit, one of the largest in English legal history, began in 2018. The first trial of key legal issues is due to begin in October, Reuters reported.
In June Vale, BHP and Samarco presented Brazilian authorities with a $26.09 billion offer to settle reparations for the dam collapse after Brazil rejected a previous offer.
BHP is denying liability in the case. BHP has referred to reparation and compensation programmes implemented by the Renova Foundation, a redress scheme established in 2016 by Samarco and its shareholders, which has funded more than $6 billion of rehousing and rehabilitation for those affected by the disaster.