catchment area of the Sonora River by Buenavista del Cobre in which the applicants
requested the Court to acknowledge their right to be consulted on environmental
affairs of public interest (Business and Human Rights Support Center 2018).
2.3.2 Brazil: The Samarco Dam Disaster and Its
Environmental and Social Consequences
2.3.2.1 Company Profile
Samarco Mineração S.A. is “. . .a Brazilian entity jointly controlled by Vale and BHP
Billiton Brazil Ltda, in which each shareholder has a 50 % ownership interest”
(Mining Data Solutions 2018). Located in Belo Horizonte in Minas Gerais state,
Samarco Mineração was established in 1977 (BNAmericas 2018b). Being active in
the extraction, granulation, and export of iron ore, it has four granulate plants in
Anquieta municipality, in Brazil’s Espírito Santo state, and three concentrators in its
Germano plant in Minas Gerais state (BNAmericas 2018b). Samarco Mineração
conducts business worldwide (Bloomberg 2018).
Before the Samarco dam disaster to be discussed in the following sections,
Samarco had already been fined six times between 2005 and 2010 for breaking
environmental laws, inter alia, by rejecting inspections, by operating without proper
licenses, furthermore by breaking pollution laws, by establishing new projects
without a proper license, and by dumping pollutants in a creek (Pitman 2015).
Furthermore, BHP Billiton as one of Samarco’s two 50% owners has already been
responsible for many company-related fatalities, e.g., 37 fatalities from coal mine
explosions and significant environmental harm, among others, by its Olympic Dam,
by the largest uranium mine on the globe, by copper waste spills in Chile, as well as
by the release of millions of tons of copper waste in the Ok Tedi and Fly River basins
in Papua New Guinea, destructing the environment and affecting 50,000 people
(Viana 2018). Samarco’s other 50% owner Vale made a name for itself when a joint
raid by the Ministry of Labor and Federal Police officers carried out in February
2015 found that 309 drivers employed by a subcontractor driving trucks between
two Vale excavations were being kept in slave-like conditions (Sandy 2015).
2.3.2.2 The Disaster and Its Consequences
The dam break led to the destruction of all forms of life in the region. Mud covered
everything, resulting in 20 deaths and unmeasurable environmental destruction. We have
seen whole communities destroyed by BHP Billiton and Vale’s operations. They have lost
everything, without receiving any real compensation. . .what is becoming evident is the
blatant corporate capture of our government by transnational companies. (London Mining
Network 2016)
24
O. Schwarz-Herion and A. Omran
requested the Court to acknowledge their right to be consulted on environmental
affairs of public interest (Business and Human Rights Support Center 2018).
2.3.2 Brazil: The Samarco Dam Disaster and Its
Environmental and Social Consequences
2.3.2.1 Company Profile
Samarco Mineração S.A. is “. . .a Brazilian entity jointly controlled by Vale and BHP
Billiton Brazil Ltda, in which each shareholder has a 50 % ownership interest”
(Mining Data Solutions 2018). Located in Belo Horizonte in Minas Gerais state,
Samarco Mineração was established in 1977 (BNAmericas 2018b). Being active in
the extraction, granulation, and export of iron ore, it has four granulate plants in
Anquieta municipality, in Brazil’s Espírito Santo state, and three concentrators in its
Germano plant in Minas Gerais state (BNAmericas 2018b). Samarco Mineração
conducts business worldwide (Bloomberg 2018).
Before the Samarco dam disaster to be discussed in the following sections,
Samarco had already been fined six times between 2005 and 2010 for breaking
environmental laws, inter alia, by rejecting inspections, by operating without proper
licenses, furthermore by breaking pollution laws, by establishing new projects
without a proper license, and by dumping pollutants in a creek (Pitman 2015).
Furthermore, BHP Billiton as one of Samarco’s two 50% owners has already been
responsible for many company-related fatalities, e.g., 37 fatalities from coal mine
explosions and significant environmental harm, among others, by its Olympic Dam,
by the largest uranium mine on the globe, by copper waste spills in Chile, as well as
by the release of millions of tons of copper waste in the Ok Tedi and Fly River basins
in Papua New Guinea, destructing the environment and affecting 50,000 people
(Viana 2018). Samarco’s other 50% owner Vale made a name for itself when a joint
raid by the Ministry of Labor and Federal Police officers carried out in February
2015 found that 309 drivers employed by a subcontractor driving trucks between
two Vale excavations were being kept in slave-like conditions (Sandy 2015).
2.3.2.2 The Disaster and Its Consequences
The dam break led to the destruction of all forms of life in the region. Mud covered
everything, resulting in 20 deaths and unmeasurable environmental destruction. We have
seen whole communities destroyed by BHP Billiton and Vale’s operations. They have lost
everything, without receiving any real compensation. . .what is becoming evident is the
blatant corporate capture of our government by transnational companies. (London Mining
Network 2016)
24
O. Schwarz-Herion and A. Omran