"Brazil mining giant agrees to pay $7bn for collapse that killed 272 people", 4 February 2021

The Brazilian mining giant Vale has agreed to pay $7bn compensation for a deadly dam collapse that killed 272 people.

The Brumadinho disaster, on 25 January 2019, is considered one of worst environmental tragedies in Brazilian history.

... On Thursday, just over two years later, Minas Gerais’s governor, Romeu Zema, announced Vale had agreed to pay the state R$37.68bn (£5bn/$7bn) in what he claimed was “Latin America’s biggest reparation package”.

... In a statement Vale’s chief executive, Eduardo Bartolomeo, said: “Vale is committed to fully repair and compensate the damage caused by the tragedy in Brumadinho and to increasingly contribute to the improvement and development of the communities in which we operate.

“We know that we have work to do and we remain firm in that purpose,” Bartolomeo added.

The deal was reportedly less than the R$54bn Minas Gerais had been demanding from Vale over the disaster in Brumadinho, a town of about 40,000 inhabitants just southwest of the state capital Belo Horizonte...