RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept 16 (Askume) – Brazil’s government confirmed on Monday it was in talks to pay up to $18 billion in potential compensation to three miners involved in a 2015 dam collapse and said the deal would involve the companies and could also include further efforts to carry out their own repairs.
Earlier this month, Askume reported that Brazilian mining giant Vale (VALE3.SA) and Australia’s BHP Billiton (BHP.AX) and their joint venture Samarco would commit about 100 billion reais ($18.2 billion) to overhaul the project.
Energy and Mines Minister Alexandre Silvera confirmed the news on Monday in an interview with local broadcaster Itatiaia, located in the state of Minas Gerais, where the toxic oil spill occurred.
He said that besides discussing compensation issues, the talks also covered 30 billion riyals worth of reforms that the company would implement itself, such as cleaning up toxic mining waste from local rivers.
Nine years ago, a dam at the Samarco iron mine near the city of Mariana burst, flooding the town with toxic waste, killing 19 people, leaving hundreds homeless, flooding forests and polluting the entire Doce River.
Silvera said miners have paid about 37 billion riyals in repair work and compensation following the tailings dam collapse.
Previous proposals from the miners were not fully accepted by the authorities, with the authorities proposing to pay 82 billion riyals for new resources and 21 billion riyals for the miners’ maintenance costs.
Vale did not specify the value of the potential deal in response to a request for comment on Monday, but reiterated that it expected to reach a deal in October.
Meanwhile, BHP and Samarco confirmed in separate statements that talks were ongoing and expressed confidence a deal would be reached soon.
(1 USD = 5.5038 R$)
