BHP accused of ‘doggedly trying to avoid’ responsibility for Brazil dam disaster

Largest group lawsuit in English legal history over 2015 dam collapse that killed 19 people opens at high court in London

The Anglo-Australian mining company BHP has been accused of “cynically and doggedly trying to avoid” responsibility for Brazil’s worst environmental disaster at the opening of the largest group lawsuit in English legal history.

The claim for up to £36bn in compensation was opened by lawyers acting for more than 620,000 individuals at the high court in London. It comes nine years after the breach of a dam holding toxic waste from an iron ore mine killed 19 people near the town of Mariana in south-eastern Brazil.