Mining giants sign $30bn settlement for Brazil 2015 dam collapse

President Lula said: “I hope the mining companies have learned their lesson; it would have cost them less to prevent the disaster.”

The dam was owned by Samarco, a joint venture between Vale and BHP.

Since the disaster, the companies have set up a foundation to compensate people, which has already carried out billions of dollars’ worth of repairs. This included building a new town to replace one of the towns that was destroyed.

However, many people in the community were still arguing they had not received justice or enough to rebuild their lives nine years on.

Separately to these legal proceedings in Brazil, more than 620,000 people had taken BHP to court in the UK, where BHP was headquartered at the time, in a trial that started earlier this week.

They are seeking about $47bn in damages in the civil trial. The first stage of it will determine if BHP – as a parent company – was liable. About 70,000 complainants are also taking Vale to court in The Netherlands.

Both companies deny liability and argue that this overseas legal action is “unnecessary” and duplicates legal proceedings in Brazil.