Miner Vale Must Pay US$7bn Over Dam Collapse

Brazilian mining giant Vale said on Thursday it had agreed to pay US$7 billion in damages over the 2019 collapse of a mining waste dam that unleashed a flood of toxic sludge and killed 270 people.

It is the largest ever damages agreement in Latin America, according to the government of Minas Gerais, the southeastern state where the disaster sent millions of tonnes of iron-ore mining waste gushing over houses and farmland.

Vale said it would pay both "socio-economic" and "socio-environmental" reparations, compensating families hit by the disaster and funding projects to repair the environment around the town of Brumadinho.

"This agreement seals Vale's commitment to fully compensate for Brumadinho and support the development of Minas Gerais," the company said in a statement.

However, victims hit by the tragedy protested outside the Court of Justice in the state capital, Belo Horizonte, saying the amount of damages should have been far higher, media reports said.

Some threatened to go to the federal Supreme Court to block the deal.

Direct damage payments to victims under the deal will totalUS$1.7 billion. It leaves open individual victims' rights to seek further damages. (AFP)