BHP employees face criminal charges over Brazil mine collapse
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Mining major BHP Billiton has said it will defend charges against the company, after Brazilian federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against the company and some of its current and former employees.
Brazil charged 22 people, 21 of whom are charged with qualified homicide and environmental crimes, including former iron-ore chief Jimmy Wilson, for the failing of a tailings dam at the Samarco project in November last year.
The dam bust killed 19 people and resulted in Brazil’s worst-ever environmental disaster.
BHP said in a statement on Friday that while the company was yet to receive formal notification of the proceedings, it outright rejected the charges both against the company and the affected individuals.
“We will defend the charges against the company, and fully support each of the affected individuals in their defence of the charges against them,” the miner said in a statement.
Since the dam failure last year, BHP and its joint venture partner Vale have established 41 programmes to compensate the affected communities and restore the environment affected by the dam failure.
BHP CEO Andrew Mackenzie told the company’s annual general meeting, in London, on Thursday, that the restart of the operation was important to the local community, as the project employed several thousand people. However, he noted that a restart would have to make economic sense and have a practical set of approvals and processes in place from authorities.
“The sooner the better as far as we, and the local people, are concerned. But to be absolutely clear, none of this detracts from our commitment to do the right thing for the people and the environment affected by this terrible disaster. There our commitment is unwavering,” Mackenzie said.
Comments
Research Reports
Projects
Latest Multimedia
Latest News
Showroom
Rittal is a world leading provider of top-quality integrated systems for enclosures, power distribution, climate control, IT infrastructure and...
VISIT SHOWROOM
ISO-certified Condra manufactures overhead cranes, portal cranes, cantilever cranes and crane components: hoists, drives, end-carriages, brakes and...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
