"British court rejects Vale’s appeal in billion-dollar action for Mariana disaster", 24 November 2023

...A British court rejected on Friday Vale’s appeal against the inclusion of the company in a lawsuit worth at least $46 billion against Vale, Samarco and BHP due to the collapse of the Fundão dam in Mariana, Minas Gerais, in 2015.

The Court of Appeal refused the miner permission to appeal the dismissal of its challenge to the jurisdiction of the English Court.

This means that if the claimants are successful in holding BHP liable for their losses, BHP’s third party claim against Vale will proceed in the English Court, where BHP will seek to hold Vale liable for 50% or more of any damages awarded to the claimants.

The lawsuit is the largest group litigation in English legal history and involves over 700,000 victims.

The Mariana dam disaster occurred on November 5 2015, when the Fundão tailings dam at the Germano iron ore mine near Mariana, Minas Gerais, Brazil, suffered a failure, resulting in flooding that devastated downstream villages and killed 19 people...