An agreement by Vale, BHP and their joint venture Samarco to pay 170 billion reais ($29.85 billion) in compensation for a deadly dam collapse in Brazil could end more than a hundred lawsuits against the mining companies in the South American country and possibly limit legal action abroad, three sources close to the matter said.
The agreement could be signed this week, nearly nine years after the 2015 disaster in the city of Mariana in southeastern Brazil that killed 19 people, left hundreds homeless, flooded forests and polluted the length of the Doce River.
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