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Mining giant BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) have agreed to pay $211m to a fund supporting victims of the Samarco dam disaster, after years of negotiation.

On Friday the group announced it had agreed to fund the support until the end of the year, paying a total of $158 million to the Renova Foundation. This will go towards helping the victims of the disaster, which took place when BHP Billiton’s Samarco dam collapsed in 2015.

The other $53m wull be made available to Samarco to carry out ongoing repair works, maintain Samarco’s facilities and support restart planning, BHP said.

The announcement comes just after Samarco and parent companies Vale SA and BHP Billiton Ltd signed a deal with Brazilian authorities that settles a 20 billion reais lawsuit related to the incident.

The dam burst when it was found that a structural change in its engineering was the cause of the failure that killed 19 people. Since the disaster, BHP Billiton said it had reviewed 10 of its biggest tailings dams and found they were stable, but was taking steps to improve risk management.
Shares in BHP Billiton are up 2.90 percent on the news, trading at 1,737.00 (0814GMT).
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Miranda Wadham
Miranda is the online editor of UK Investor Magazine. Her interests include private equity, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer lending, gender equality and coffee.

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