Brazil: More than 6,500 victims of the Mariana dam collapse choose to join Samarco's Definitive Compensation Program in August
"More Mariana tragedy victims choose compensation in Brazil", 15 August 2025
...The Definitive Compensation Program (PID), reopened on August 1 by the mining company Samarco, has received new applications...[T]he number - 293,440 as of July - has now surpassed 300,000.
The instrument is one of the compensation options available to victims of the 2015 Mariana dam collapse. The PID was reopened at the request of the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, along with the public prosecutors and public defenders of the states of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo. The new registration deadline is September 14.
The prosecutors’ and public defenders’ offices argue that the extension was necessary because “there are affected individuals who were unable to register in a timely manner due to doubts regarding contractual clauses and powers of attorney granted to law firms litigating abroad.”
The program offers BRL 35,000 as a one-time payment to each individual or company that participates. Before August 1, 232,927 agreements had been signed under the PID, totaling BRL 5.57 billion in payouts.
To receive payment, participants must sign a release agreement waiving any legal action in Brazil or abroad.
The mining company Samarco, owned by Vale and BHP, was responsible for the Fundão dam in Mariana, Minas Gerais, which collapsed on November 5, 2015. Approximately 39 million cubic meters of tailings swept through the Doce River Basin, causing 19 deaths. A pregnant woman was rescued but later suffered a miscarriage. The disaster also affected populations in dozens of municipalities all the way to the river’s mouth in Espírito Santo...