O influente Wall Street Journal (WSJ) dedicou um espaço generoso para repercutir a decisão do MPF de ajuizar uma ação avaliada em torno de R$ 155 bilhões contra a Mineradora Samarco e suas proprietárias, a Vale e a BHP Billiton. A ação do MPF demanda ainda um depósito inicial de R$ 7.7 bilhões nos próximos 12 meses para que sejam iniciado o processo de reparação social e ambiental dos prejuízos causados pelo maior desastre ambiental causado pela mineração em escala mundial nos últimos 100 anos.
Um aspecto lembrado pelo jornalista Paul Kiernan que assina a matéria do WSJ é que o valor agora demandado pelo MPF é bem acima dos R$ 20 bilhões que foram acordados pelos governos federal e estaduais de Minas Gerais e Espírito Santo. Mas como eu já havia comentado aqui neste blog, o acordo proposto pela Advocacia Geral da União (AGU) era, no mínimo, muito generoso com as mineradoras que causaram o incidente em Bento Rodrigues.
Agora, dada a atual conjuntura política vigente no Brasil, avalio que essa ação do MPF não tem muita chance de prosperar. É que até agora a Samarco não pagou nenhuma multa ou compensação aos atingidos. Assim, esperar que tenhamos uma decisão favorável ao MPF é, no mínimo, um gesto de esperança excessiva.
Mas uma coisa prática o MPF já conseguiu: as ações da BHP Billiton já tomaram um tombo considerável na Bolsa de Londres, em um cenário em que a empresa australiana já vinha enfrentando graves dificuldades.
BHP, Vale Face $44 Billion Lawsuit Over Brazil Dam Disaster
Lawsuit could upend initial settlement reached between companies and government in March
Por PAUL KIERNAN
RIO DE JANEIRO—Brazilian federal prosecutors filed a civil lawsuit Tuesday demanding that mining companies responsible for a catastrophic dam failure in November shell out up to 155 billion reais ($43.55 billion) for cleanup and remediation, far more than the government initially estimated.
If upheld by a judge, the lawsuit would require Brazil’s Vale SA, Anglo-Australian miner BHP Billiton Ltd., and their joint-venture Samarco Mineração to make an initial deposit of 7.7 billion reais to an independent fund responsible for cleaning up the fallout from the Fundão tailings dam collapse on Nov. 5. The accident, believed to be Brazil’s worst environmental disaster ever, released an avalanche of sludge that killed 19 people, destroyed villages and polluted more than 400 miles of rivers before spewing into the Atlantic Ocean weeks later.
Shares in BHP Billiton fell more than 6% in early trading in London.
Massive tailings dams, like this functional one near Antonio Pereira, Brazil, are built by mining companies to hold back the sludge left behind when a mill separates metals from ore. But the dams fail often enough that industry engineers are sounding alarms.
The lawsuit represents authorities’ biggest response yet to the disaster. It also threatens to upend a landmark settlement reached between the mining companies and Brazil’s government in early March. In that deal, the companies agreed to spend as little as 9.46 billion reais through 2030 via a foundation run mostly by their own appointees.
Many investors interpreted the settlement to mean that Vale and BHP Billiton had left the bulk of Samarco’s liabilities behind them. Shares of both companies, after plunging in the wake of the disaster, have rebounded in recent months. Vale’s stock more than doubled between early February and late April, aided by a rally in iron-ore prices.
However, BHP’s shares slumped 9.5% on Wednesday, underperforming rival iron-ore miner Rio Tinto Ltd. and Australia’s benchmark share index. BHP’s stock is also weighed by weakening global oil prices, which are down more than 5% from their 2016 highs reached last week.
But the settlement wasn’t signed by the task force of public prosecutors that has been investigating the Samarco disaster since it happened.
Instead, the prosecutors on Tuesday criticized the deal for not involving victims in negotiations, for failing to establish legal mechanisms to ensure that the mining companies would meet their obligations, and for ignoring the government’s responsibility for the disaster.
“Input from the public prosecutors’ office was not considered by the negotiating parties,” the lawsuit said, adding that the government and companies appeared to be in a hurry to get a deal signed. “This resulted in a settlement that was incomplete, precarious and partial.”
Public prosecutors in Brazil enjoy broad freedom from other institutions and are known for occasionally hitting companies with massive lawsuits.
Such officials enjoy broad freedom from other institutions in Brazil and are known for occasionally hitting companies with massive lawsuits.
In 2011, a federal prosecutor sought the equivalent of $11 billion at the time from Chevron Corp. and Transocean Ltd. in response to an offshore oil spill and asked a judge to shut down the companies’ operations in Brazil. The companies ended up agreeing to pay about $42 million after reports from regulators showed the damage was relatively minor.
The damage estimates in Tuesday’s lawsuit also cited an oil spill: BP PLC’s 2010 Deepwater Horizon catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico.
“Based on preliminary studies, the human, economic and socio-environmental impacts caused by the break of the Fundão dam are at least equivalent to those verified in the Gulf of Mexico,” federal prosecutors said in a news release. “It doesn’t seem technically or morally credible that…the human, cultural or environmental value of Brazil should be inferior to that of other countries.”
BHP said in a statement after the lawsuit was announced that it “remains committed to helping Samarco to rebuild the community and restore the environment affected by the failure of the dam.”
Samarco and Vale didn’t immediately return emails seeking comment on the lawsuit.
Write to Paul Kiernan at paul.kiernan@wsj.com
FONTE: http://www.wsj.com/articles/bhp-vale-face-44-billion-lawsuit-over-brazil-dam-disaster-1462322048#:g84jfrlRCAIRfA
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