Resources giant BHP has reached an agreement to settle the Australian Samarco shareholder class action, agreeing to pay the applicants A$110m, with no admission of liability.
The Australian shareholder class action was brought on behalf of shareholders who acquired BHP shares before the Fundão Dam failure in 2015.
The class action was filed in the Federal Court of Australia in 2018 on behalf of people who acquired shares in BHP Group or BHP Group Plc (now BHP Group (UK) during the period August 8 2012 to November 9 2015.
The Fundão Dam was owned and operated by Samarco Mineração, a non-operated joint venture between BHP Billiton Brasil and Vale, with BHP Brasil and Vale holding 50% of Samarco.
BHP expects to recover the majority of the settlement amount from its insurers.. The settlement is subject to approval by the Federal Court of Australia.
In October last year, after reaching a $31.7bn settlement agreement with Brazilian authorities, BHP, Vale and their joint venture Samarco were acquitted of criminal charges related to the dam failure. The charges were filed by a Brazilian federal prosecutor in 2016, one year after the collapse of Samarco’s tailings dam in the state of Minas Gerais.
According to a UN report, the incident resulted in about 60-million cubic metres of tailings being released into the surrounding environment — killing 19 people and severely contaminating the Rio Doce River, the region’s primary source of clean water.
With Jacob Webster
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