Posted on 17 Nov 2025
Mining giant BHP confirmed on Friday that it will appeal the English High Court’s ruling that the company is liable for the 2015 Fundão dam failure in Brazil, Kallanish reports.
London’s High Court found BHP liable under Brazilian law, with judge Finola O’Farrel saying that continuing to raise the height of the dam when it was not safe to do so was the “direct and immediate cause” of the dam’s collapse.
The dam in Mariana, Minas Gerais state, was owned by Samarco – an iron ore joint venture between BHP and Brazil’s Vale. As it was used to store waste from iron ore mining, its failure resulted in a catastrophic environmental accident with the toxic sludge killing 19 people, destroying hundreds of homes and polluting a nearby river and the Atlantic Ocean.
“BHP intends to appeal the decision and will continue to defend the UK group action,” the miner says in a statement, noting the civil lawsuit is “duplicative of remediation and compensation that has already occurred in Brazil or which is available under the Brazil Agreement.”
“The Fundão dam failure at Samarco was a tragedy that should never have happened,” BHP adds. “Since 2015, BHP Brasil, Vale and Samarco have provided $13.4 billion for reparation and compensation to affected people and to public authorities in Brazil.”
Around $6.3 billion in compensation and financial aid has been paid to over 610,000 people, including 240,000 claimants in the UK group action, BHP claims.
Any court assessment of damages will be determined in future second- and third-stage trials, expected to be completed in 2028 or 2029. BHP says the expected cash outflows relating to Samarco remain “largely aligned” with the $2.2 billion for FY2026 and $0.5 billion for FY2027 included in BHP’s FY2025 results. Around $1 billion has been spent to date in FY2026.
Source:Kallanish
