Impact of court’s decision on Samarco dam failure
Samarco’s Judicial Reorganisation process is continuing in the Commercial Courts of Belo Horizonte, State of Minas Gerais. The Judicial Reorganisation is a process for Samarco to restructure its financial debts in order to establish a sustainable independent financial position that would allow Samarco to continue its operations safely and meet its Renova Foundation obligations. BHP Brasil will continue to support Samarco in this process.
Negotiations are ongoing with State and Federal Prosecutors and certain other Brazilian public authorities in relation to the review of the Framework Agreement. The Framework Agreement was entered into between Samarco, Vale and BHP Brasil and the relevant Brazilian authorities in March 2016 and established the Renova Foundation to develop and implement environmental and socio-economic programs to remediate and provide compensation for damage caused by the Samarco dam failure.
In October 2021, the 12th Federal Court delivered a ruling that expanded the scope of eligible individuals of the court mandated compensation process (“Novel System”), extended its geographical scope and increased indemnification amounts for certain categories of damage. The decision is under appeal and applications have been made to clarify certain aspects of the ruling.
BHP is currently reviewing the impact of the 12th Federal Court’s decision on the Group’s provision for the Samarco dam failure and it is possible that the provision could materially increase.
In December 2021, BHP agreed to fund US$700 million in further financial support for the Renova Foundation, which will be offset against the Group’s provision for the Samarco dam failure. Further funding requirements for the period to 31 December 2022 continue to be assessed and, will be subject to future approval by BHP.
BHP will provide an update to the ongoing potential financial impacts on BHP Brasil of the Samarco dam failure with the release of the financial results on 15 February 2022. Any financial impacts will continue to be treated as an exceptional item.
