A definitive settlement with miner Samarco and owners, BHP Group (BHP.AX) and Vale SA (VALE3.SA), for the damage caused by a burst tailings dam in 2015 could reach 100 billion reais ($19.06 billion), the governor of the Brazilian state where the disaster occurred told Reuters.
That estimate is nearly four times higher than an initial deal struck with mining companies in 2016, which created a foundation to implement reparations and temporarily froze lawsuits relating to the incident.
“The expectation is that the agreement is around 100 billion reais,” Romeu Zema, governor of Minas Gerais, told Reuters in an interview late on Friday.
