Samarco, Owners Get More Time to Negotiate Dam-Collapse Claims
November 20 2017 - 5:54PM
Dow Jones News
By Robb M. Stewart
MELBOURNE, Australia--BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP.AU) and Brazilian
venture partner Vale SA (VALE) have been given a further 150 days
to continue negotiating settlements to more than US$50 billion in
public civil claims in the wake of the catastrophic dam burst at
their Samarco iron-ore mine two years ago.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Australian mining company said
Brazil's 12th Federal Court had approved a request that will give
the parties until April 20 to continue negotiations.
It came as Samarco Mineracao SA and shareholders BHP and Vale
amended a January agreement with the Federal Prosecutors' Office in
Brazil and the Minas Gerais state prosecutor's office related to
the dam collapse in which 19 people were killed, villages were
destroyed and hundreds of miles of rivers were polluted.
The amendment will see state prosecutors become party to the
preliminary agreement, provides for additional community
consultation and includes a process for seeking new socioeconomic
experts to advise prosecutors, BHP said.
The earlier deal outlined the process and timeline for
negotiations over the claims and set up the appointment of various
experts to advise federal prosecutors. The January agreement
suspended an about US$400 million injunction order under an almost
US$6.1 billion public civil claim, and suspended a US$47.6 billion
claim against the mining companies and their venture.
-Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 20, 2017 18:39 ET (23:39 GMT)
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