BHP Group Ltd (LSE:BHP, ASX:BHP) has agreed a final settlement with the Brazilian government over the Samarco dam disaster in 2015.
“The Samarco Fundão dam failure in 2015 was a terrible tragedy. It should never have happened and must never be forgotten," the company said in a statement.
Owners Vale, BHP and Samarco will pay $30 billion. BHP said its balance sheet provision captures this agreement and is unchanged at $6.5bn with payments over the next two years of $3.8bn each for both it and partner Vale.
Under the Agreement, Samarco is the primary obligor for the settlement obligations and BHP and Vale are each secondary obligors of any obligation that Samarco cannot fund (50% each).
Deutsche Bank said that the agreement is in line with previous indications and kept its target price of 2100p and 'hold' recommendation for BHP.
London-traded BHP shares were little changed today at 2,180p.