(Alliance News) - London's High Court on Friday postponed a trial against Australian mining firm BHP Group Ltd over a deadly dam collapse that was one of the worst environmental disasters Brazil has ever seen.
The trial, over the 2015 tragedy at an iron ore tailings dam that killed 19 people, had been due to start on 9 April, 2024 but will now begin six months later in October, judge Finola O'Farrell ruled.
Law firm Pogust Goodhead, which is leading the class action lawsuit, announced in March that the damages claim had risen to an estimated GBP36 billion.
BHP, which rejects the claims, had requested a longer delay to prepare its defence and provide hundreds of thousands of internal documents.
The company also wants the high court to recognise that BHP co-owns the dam's operator Samarco with Brazilian iron ore miner Vale, but the lawsuit is only filed against BHP.
Judge O'Farrell added Friday that "the sensible course of action is to postpone" the trial to 7 October, 2024 and increase its length.
"That will give the parties a more relaxed, achievable timetable and will provide time for Vale and others to participate if necessary," she said.
For its part, BHP stressed that it rejects the claims.
"BHP denies the claims brought in the UK in their entirety and will continue to defend the case," a company spokesman said.
"The UK case is unnecessary as it duplicates issues already covered by the ongoing work of the Renova Foundation and the subject of ongoing legal proceedings in Brazil."
He added that the foundation, a body set up by BHP and Vale to coordinate aid, had so far funded more than BRL29 billion - around USD6 billion - in financial compensation and reparation work.
Pogust Goodhead had said in March that the number of claimants had spiked to more than 700,000, sharply higher than a previous estimate of 400,000.
That makes it the largest group litigation in English civil court history, with claimants including 46 Brazilian municipalities, thousands of firms and several indigenous peoples.
"Over seven years on from the disaster, today's judgment means our clients will finally have their day in court and they are now one step closer to the justice they deserve," noted Pogust Goodhead's global managing partner and CEO Tom Goodhead on Friday.
The damages claim would also be the world's largest-ever in relation to an environmental disaster, coming in at more than the combined total paid by Volkswagen over Dieselgate and BP over Deepwater Horizon.
The tragedy unfolded after the tailings dam in the Minas Gerais region ruptured, unleashing a torrent of muddy water that virtually wiped out the village of Bento Rodrigues and polluted water supplies across a large part of southeastern Brazil.
It resulted in the deaths of 19 people, the flooding of 39 towns, and the polluting of hundreds of kilometres of river.
The contaminated water and mud travelled down the Doce river into the Atlantic Ocean, killing thousands of animals and devastating large swaths of protected tropical rainforest.
source: AFP
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