A dam collapse in 2015 at an iron-ore mine run by a firm co-owned by BHP killed 19 people and unleashed a deluge of toxic mud into villages, fields, rainforest, rivers and the ocean.
"BHP are strictly liable as 'polluters' in respect of damage caused by the collapse," the High Court in London said in its ruling following a mammoth trial.
BHP on Friday said it would appeal the ruling.
"BHP has supported extensive remediation and compensation efforts in Brazil since 2015," the company said in a statement.
The victims first filed a UK legal action in 2018 demanding compensation from BHP. At the time of the disaster, one of its global headquarters was in Britain.
The eventual trial at the High Court ran from October 2024 to March this year, and the court has already begun preparing the second phase of the case to determine potential damages and compensation.
During the trial, the claimants' lawyers argued that BHP was aware that toxic sludge was accumulating at the facility in Minas Gerais state, north of Rio de Janeiro, at rates that far exceeded the annual limit.
The lawyers said the build-up contributed to the disaster at the mine, which was managed by Samarco, co-owned by BHP and Brazilian miner Vale.
Judge Finola O'Farrell said BHP had been negligent in monitoring the dam's condition, despite studies and warnings recommending remediation.
"The risk of collapse of the dam was foreseeable," she said.
- 'Now I can be okay' -
Pamela Sena, 31, a housewife and manicurist in Bento Rodrigues -- one of the hardest-hit villages -- said she "started crying with happiness" when she learned of the ruling.
She told AFP of her last morning spent with her family before the torrent of toxic mud killed her five-year-old daughter, Emanuele Vitoria, in the village of Bento Rodrigues.
The daughter was at school that day when Sena got a warning to flee to higher ground as the mud approached. She was told her family was already safely at the highest point of the village.
"But when I got there, they weren't there. And when I looked down, everything was already destroyed," she told AFP. Her husband and son were later found alive.
"Besides losing Manu, our memories, her story, her photos, everything we had went away with the mud. There's nothing left."
She said while no money could bring her daughter back, she was delighted to see justice done after "10 years of struggle, of humiliation after humiliation."
"I needed to hear that justice would be done so I could be okay, and now I can be okay."
- Companies cannot just 'walk away' -
BHP maintained that a compensation agreement it reached last year in Brazil -- worth around $31 billion -- provided a resolution.
However, a majority of the 620,000 claimants, including 31 municipalities, argue that they are not sufficiently covered by the deal.
Instead, claimants are seeking around GBP 36 billion ($47 billion) in compensation, according to a previous estimate from law firm Pogust Goodhead.
The amount of compensation will be decided at a trial scheduled for October 2026.
Pogust Goodhead chief executive Alicia Alinia said the judgement "sends an unmistakable message to multinational companies around the world: You cannot disregard your duty of care and walk away from the devastation you caused."
Vale and BHP were acquitted in November 2024 of criminal charges by a Brazilian court, which ruled there was insufficient evidence linking them to the dam's failure.
Another similar civil lawsuit has been ongoing since 2024 in the Netherlands.
Tunisians rally as court mulls factory suspension over pollution
Gabes, Tunisia (AFP) Nov 13, 2025 -
Hundreds of people in Tunisia's city of Gabes protested on Thursday in front of a court as it examined whether to suspend a nearby factory accused of widespread pollution.
Locals have rallied in the southern coastal city in recent weeks calling for the closure of a phosphate processing plant they say is behind a rise in gas poisonings and other pollution-related health problems.
"We're angry with what's happening in Gabes," said protester Ridha Moussa.
"We're tired of cancers, bone fragility and shortness of breath," he added. "We're losing our agriculture and our sea resources."
The hearing into the complaint filed last month by the local bar association seeking to halt the factory's operations was adjourned to next Thursday, lawyers said.
"Today we presented evidence that shows this is a crime committed against the city," said Mounir Adouni, head of the local bar association. "We don't need any further evidence to support our position."
Adouni said the matter was urgent: "The danger is imminent to our children's lives, and the hospitals here are unable to provide treatment."
The factory emits sulphur gases, nitrogen and fluorine, according to an audit carried out in July for the African Development Bank, which reported "major non-compliance" in terms of air and marine pollution.
Mohamed Amairi, another protester, said he hoped "the court will do us justice by ending this environmental crime that has been ongoing for over 50 years".
Lawyers of the committee that filed the complaint said a separate complaint seeking to dismantle the polluting units altogether will be heard in December.
The factory processes phosphate to make fertilisers. Critics say it has been releasing more toxic gases and radioactive waste into the sea recently.
Despite a 2017 government promise to gradually shut it down, authorities earlier this year said they were ramping up production at the plant.
President Kais Saied has long vowed to revive Tunisia's phosphate sector, hindered by years of unrest and underinvestment, calling it a "pillar of the national economy".
Taking advantage of rising world fertiliser prices, Tunisia now wants the plant's output to increase more than fourfold by 2030.
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