2023-05-12 09:24:07 ET
A London court on Friday rejected BHP's ( NYSE: BHP ) request to delay until mid-2025 a potential £36B (~$44B) lawsuit over the 2015 collapse of the Brazil Fundao tailings dam owned by the Samarco joint venture the company holds with Vale ( VALE ).
The miner is being sued by 720K Brazilians over the country's worst environmental disaster, which killed 19 people as mud and toxic mining waste swept into the Doce River, obliterating villages and contaminating water supplies.
BHP's ( BHP ) lawyers had said the trial should be delayed until at least June 2025 to give the company more time to prepare and allow Vale ( VALE ) to participate, but the judge set a trial start date of October 7, 2024.
The lawsuit, one of the largest in British legal history, first began in 2018 and was thrown out of court two years later, before the Court of Appeal ruled in July that it could proceed.
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U.K. court rebuffs BHP's 14-month delay request in Brazil dam lawsuit