(Reuters) — Global miner BHP said on Friday it had agreed to fund a total of $211 million in financial support for the Renova Foundation, created to help victims of the Samarco dam disaster in Brazil.
Most of the allocated sum, $158 million, would be used to fund remediation and compensation programs identified under an agreement with Brazilian authorities, BHP said in a statement.
The amount would be offset against the group’s provision for the Samarco dam failure, it added. The rest would be allocated to carrying out ongoing repair works, maintain Samarco’s facilities and supporting restart planning.
The announcement from BHP comes after Samarco and parent companies Vale S.A. and BHP Billiton Ltd. signed a deal with Brazilian authorities that settles a 20 billion reais ($5.2 billion) lawsuit related to the 2015 dam burst that killed 19 people.
Brazilian miner Vale also said on Thursday it would pay 557.7 million reais in the second half of the year to restore the environment and communities damaged by the disaster at Samarco.
(Reuters) — BHP Billiton P.L.C. will pay $25 million to settle charges that it violated a U.S. anti-bribery law by failing to properly monitor a program under which it paid for dozens of foreign government officials to attend the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.