Brazil seals $30bn compensation deal with BHP, Vale over 2015 dam collapse

Brazil on Friday signed a 170-billion reais ($29.85-billion) compensation agreement with miners BHP, Vale and Samarco for the Mariana dam collapse in 2015, one of the country's worst environmental disasters.

The collapse of the dam at the iron ore mine owned by Samarco, a joint venture between Vale and BHP, near the city of Mariana in southeastern Brazil, unleashed a wave of tailings in a disaster that killed 19 people, left hundreds homeless, flooded forests and polluted the length of the Doce River.