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Brazilian companies to cut deal with gov't over environmental disaster

Xinhua, January 19, 2016 Adjust font size:

Brazilian Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira said Monday that mining company Samarco, the owner of two tailings dams which collapsed in southeast Brazil last November, will make a deal with the government to repair the damages to an important river basin.

Samarco and its two parent companies, Vale and BHP Billiton, need to fulfill the court order which ruled that they should start immediately to remedy the extensive environmental damages.

The collapse of the tailings dams occurred on Nov. 5 last year, causing a slide of mud and iron ore waste down on a valley, killing at least 17,and completely destroying the entire residential neighborhood of Mariana, Minas Gerais state in southeast Brazil.

When the toxic mud reached Doce River, the largest river in the region, it destroyed the surrounding fauna and caused more damages to the ecosystem after it flowed into the Atlantic Ocean. Endi