BHP to face claims of ecocide in £10bln+ trial

BHP will face multiple accusations of being responsible for ecocidal conduct in committing the Brazilian Mariana dam disaster, the trial is to commence in April 2024.

The eight-week trial has been listed in England by Mrs Justice O’Farrell for April 2024.

The largest class action in English legal history has grown as over 200,000 new claimants have registered to join, taking the number of people suing BHP to over 400,000.

Current and former top executives at BHP face victims of the disaster, represented by Pogust Goodhead, through the UK courts. 

The Mariana dam disaster killed 19 people, destroyed  villages and sent 43.7mln cubic metres of toxic mining waste rushing into the Doce River.

BHP’s liabilities in the class action were previously estimated at £5bln in 2018.

The April 2024 trial follows a win in the Court of Appeal in July 2022 allowing the Brazilian victims to have their case heard in English courts.

This is after a four-year legal battle where BHP sought to return the litigation to Brazil, where cases of this kind regularly take decades to conclude.