Brazil to sue Samarco mining firm for $5.2bn over dam burst

Image source, Reuters

Image caption, The mud destroyed buildings in the village of in Bento Rodrigues

The Brazilian government says it will sue mining company Samarco $5.2bn (拢3.4bn) for the environmental damage caused after a waste water dam at an iron-ore mine collapsed.

At least 13 people died when the dam burst earlier this month in the south-eastern state of Minas Gerais

A village was destroyed and drinking water polluted over a wide area.

Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira said money was needed for environmental recovery and to compensate victims.

"There was a huge impact from an environmental point of view," she told reporters in the capital Brasilia.

"It is not a natural disaster, it is a disaster prompted by economic activity, but of a magnitude equivalent to those disasters created by forces of nature."

She said about 500km (310 miles) of the Rio Doce - one of Brazil's most important rivers - would have to be dredged in parts, vegetation replanted and fresh water springs cleared.

Samarco is owned by mining giants Vale, from Brazil, and Anglo-Australian company BHP Billiton.

On Thursday the UN said the dam burst had unleashed a flood of "toxic mud".

However, mining giant BHP said in a statement that the water in the dam - a by-product of iron ore extraction - did not pose any threat to humans.