Brazil Freezes Mining Companies' Assets for Burst Dam

[Judi Lynn]

Brazil Freezes Mining Companies' Assets for Burst Dam
Mon, 12/21/2015 - 12:13pm by The Associated Press

A Brazilian judge has ordered that the assets held by mining giants Vale and Australian company BHP Billiton be frozen in the wake of a dam collapse that officials call the worst environmental disaster in the country's history.

The dam burst killed an estimated 9 tons of fish and polluted 850 kilometers (530 miles) of waterways.

The federal court said on Monday that Judge Marcelo Aguiar Machado ruled that Vale and BHP Billiton should be punished as co-owners of iron ore miner Samarco. The company operates the dam that burst on Nov. 5.

The ruling came after the federal government and Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo states filed a lawsuit to repair the $5 billion damage. Vale said in a Sunday statement that it plans to appeal that decision.

http://www.pddnet.com/news/2015/12/brazil-freezes-mining-companies-assets-burst-dam

(Short article, no more at link.)

[forest444]

1. Good for Brazil. Compare that with the recent chicken-feed settlement in the BP gulf disaster:

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/10/09/bpoi-o09.html

From the article:

Around $15 billion of the $20.8 billion settlement will be tax-deductible. Moreover, the money from the settlement will be released at a slow trickle, approximately $1.1 billion per year over the course of 15 to 18 years, meaning that the value of the settlement will be significantly eroded by inflation. The annual amount BP will pay out for the settlement will be roughly equivalent to BP’s second quarter profits from this year alone.

As with the earlier $4.5 billion settlement with federal prosecutors in the criminal case against the company, such sums are merely the “cost of doing business” for BP.