Firefighters continued to search for victims weeks after the disaster in Burmadinho
Photo:
DOUGLAS MAGNO / AFP
Around two years after the devastating dam break at an iron ore mine in Brazil, the mining company Vale pays compensation amounting to almost six billion euros.
"The President of the Supreme Court has approved the historic agreement," said a statement from the court in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.
The agreement with the government of Minas Gerais is the largest such agreement ever concluded in the history of Brazil and Latin America.
"We did it," tweeted the state governor Romeu Zema.
According to a statement from the government of Minas Gerais, 30 percent of the funds will benefit the community and the population of Brumadinho.
The agreement ended a legal battle that could have spanned more than a decade, the court press release said.
According to the news portal "G1", the agreed value of a good 37 billion reais is more than 30 percent below what the government of Minas Gerais had originally requested.
A subsidiary of TÜV Süd tested retention basins
The dam at the Vale-operated Córrego do Feijao mine broke on January 25, 2019.
A mudslide rolled over parts of the facility and neighboring settlements near Brumadinho and buried people, houses and animals under itself.
At least 259 people were killed in the accident.
Another eleven people are still missing.
Shortly before the dam broke, employees of the Brazilian subsidiary of TÜV Süd checked the retention basins and found them safe.
In February last year, the Brazilian judiciary accepted the charges against the mining group Vale and the subsidiary of TÜV Süd and 16 employees of the two companies for murder.
On January 21, the fifth hearing on compensation negotiations between the government of Minas Gerais and Vale ended without an agreement.
The mining company had until January 29 to submit an offer that would meet the state's expectations.
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