US court cancels most of class action against Samarco over deadly dam burst - MINING.

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US court cancels most of class action against

Samarco over deadly dam burst
Cecilia Jamasmie | March 27, 2017 | 6:57 am Top Companies Australia Europe Latin America Iron Ore

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Samarco’s dam burst killed 19 people, wiped out several towns and polluted rivers. (Image
by Romerito Pontes | Flickr Commons.)

A US judge has annulled most of a $50 billion (155 billion real) civil
lawsuit against iron miner Samarco, and its owners Brazil’s Vale
(NYSE:VALE) and BHP Billiton (ASX, NYSE:BHP) (LON:BLT), for a
collapsed tailings dam that killed 19 people and polluted a major river
in 2015.

SAMARCO, WHICH HAS ANNUAL CAPACITY OF ROUGHLY 30

MILLION TONNES OF IRON ORE, RUN OUT OF MONEY LAST YEAR
AND ITS DEBT ALREADY IS PEGGED AT MORE THAN $3.7BN.

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US court cancels most of class action against Samarco over deadly dam burst - MINING.COM 17-05-21 17(44

In a statement Monday, Vale said the US District Court for the Southern
District of New York had annulled last week the majority of the class
action lawsuit against the company and executives, including those
involving CEO Murilo Ferreira, over the a fatal spill that hit Brazil’s Minas
Gerais state

The only parts of the case that remain ongoing are related to specific
statements made by Vale in 2013 and 2014, and a conference call in
November 2015, the Rio de Janeiro-based company said.

Last year, Vale had said it hoped to restart the mine in mid-2017. The
operation, which has annual capacity of roughly 30 million tonnes, run
out of money last year and its debt already is pegged at more than
$3.7bn since it has had no cash flow since the accident.

In September, Samarco even missed an interest payment on a $500

million bond. A couple of months later, Brazilian court ordered BHP
and Vale to pay an initial $350 million to help clean up what is
considered the country’s worst environmental disaster.

Samarco’s pelletizing operations supplied roughly one-fifth of the

seaborne trade in the steelmaking raw material that attracts a
premium price over iron ore fines and lump ore.

The dam burst also left hundreds homeless as sludge washed

downstream into neighbouring state Espírito Santo through remote
mountain valleys reaching the Atlantic ocean 600 kilometres away.
(Screenshot from PigMine 7, via YouTube)

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