BHP faces UK contempt charge for funding case over Brazil dam collapse

London (Reuters) -BHP, according to one of the worst environmental disasters of Brazil, some Brazilian municipalities who sued the mining giant on Thursday, the Brazilian municipalities in the UK faced the court hearing in the UK.

The decision on Thursday is the last development in the long -standing cases on the collapse of the Mariana Dam in the Southeast Brazil, which belongs to the Samarco joint venture of BHP and VALE.

Judge Adam Constable said that BHP, the world’s largest mining in the market value, finances Brazil cases in London to filed a lawsuit for “to intervene in the administration of justice”.

It is not yet known when a hearing will take place.

Meanwhile, BHP is waiting to decide that the plaintiff’s lawyers in the London case value up to 36 billion pounds (49.3 billion dollars).

A BHP spokesman said he did not determine that the decision will “strongly defend the principles of the application of contempt by municipalities.

Lawyers representing the plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit against more than 600,000 Brazilians, 46 local governments and BHP, which contain approximately 2,000 enterprises, adopted the decision as “an important step to take into account the BHP”.

The dam exploded and revealed a wave of toxic mud, which killed 19 people, left thousands of homeless, leaving the forests under water, polluting the length of the Doce River, and led to one of the greatest cases in the history of English law.

The hearing started in October and ended in March. Waiting to decide whether BHP will be held responsible for the collapse.

The BHP rejects responsibility and says the case has copied the legal proceedings and compensation and repair programs in Brazil. In the first week of the hearing, Brazil, BHP, Vale and Samarco signed a 170 billion Reais ($ 30.6 billion) compensation agreement.

(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Barbara Lewis)