Brazil's Vale to pay $7 bn in damages for deadly 2019 dam collapse - bangkokpost

 Brazilian mining giant Vale said Thursday it had agreed to pay $7 billion in damages over the 2019 collapse of a mining waste dam that unleashed a flood of toxic sludge and killed 270 people.

It is the largest ever damages agreement in Latin America, according to the government of Minas Gerais, the southeastern state where the disaster sent millions of tons of iron-ore mining waste gushing over houses and farmland.

Vale said it would pay both "socio-economic" and "socio-environmental" reparations, compensating families hit by the disaster and funding projects to repair the environment around the town of Brumadinho.

"This agreement seals Vale's commitment to fully compensate for Brumadinho and support the development of Minas Gerais," the company said in a statement.