MARINA, Brazil — The collapse of the Fundão dam in Mariana, Minas Gerais, on November 5, 2015, remains one of Brazil’s defining industrial disasters. The dam was operated by Samarco, which is controlled by Vale and BHP. Official sources record 19 deaths and extensive damage across the Rio Doce basin.
Nearly nine years later, a new judicial civil-reparation agreement set out a replacement framework for repairing and compensating for the damage. Signed on October 25, 2024, and approved by Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court, the STF, on November 6, 2024, the agreement carries a headline valuation of R$170 billion.
That figure requires an important distinction: it is not R$170 billion in newly available compensation money. It combines spending that had already occurred with payments and obligations scheduled across many years. The deal is also separate from criminal proceedings arising from the collapse.
What happened
The 2024 agreement was signed by the federal government, the governments of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo, justice institutions, Samarco, Vale and BHP. It replaced the 2016 framework known as the TTAC, under which Fundação Renova had been the central vehicle for reparation work.
Under the replacement arrangement, Renova is to be extinguished. Governance shifts toward structures and funds led by public authorities for reparative and compensatory programs. The agreement establishes programs, deadlines and governance mechanisms intended to guide implementation.
BHP and Vale publicly confirmed the agreement and its R$170 billion composition, describing it as a negotiated civil-reparation framework. That characterization matters because the settlement provides a mechanism for repair and implementation; it is not, by itself, a judicial finding of criminal guilt.
By the numbers
- R$170 billion: the agreement’s total stated valuation.
- About R$38 billion: spending already made through September 2024.
- R$100 billion: payments to public authorities over 20 years.
- About R$32 billion: future obligations to be performed by Samarco.
- About R$132 billion: the combined future-payment and future-performance component, under the agreement’s definitions and indexation.
- 19: deaths officially recorded after the November 5, 2015 collapse.
The breakdown means that the R$170 billion figure should not be read as a single new fund or as an amount immediately available to affected people. Roughly R$38 billion of the valuation represented expenditure before the agreement’s September 2024 reference point. The remaining components consist of long-term payments to public authorities and obligations Samarco is expected to carry out.
Why it matters
The agreement is significant because it changes the institutional model for a reparation process that followed damage along the Rio Doce basin. Rather than continuing the 2016 TTAC/Renova structure, it places public-authority-led governance and funds at the center of the new framework.
For international readers, the case also illustrates the difference between a large settlement valuation and the practical delivery of reparation. A total agreement value can include work completed before signing, payments made over decades and non-cash performance obligations. The eventual effect will depend on implementation through the programs and governance mechanisms specified in the agreement.
As of the defined reporting cutoff of September 4, 2026, the agreement had established the framework for implementation, but the available fact record does not provide evidence that all compensation or reparative measures had been completed. Signing and court approval alone do not establish completion.
The separate criminal case
Criminal accountability has proceeded on a different track. On September 4, 2026, the Federal Regional Court of the 6th Region, or TRF6, convicted Samarco and three former managers on appeal in connection with the Fundão collapse.
In the same appellate ruling, the court maintained the acquittals of Vale, BHP Billiton Brasil, VOGBR and three other defendants. The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, the MPF, said it would assess possible further appeals. The ruling was not final, and the appellate convictions should not be treated as a final resolution of the criminal case.
What happens next
The next test for the 2024 agreement is execution: the delivery of the public-authority-led programs, payments and Samarco obligations over the timelines set out in the settlement. Its R$170 billion headline describes the agreement’s overall valuation, not a completed outcome.
The Mariana disaster still matters because the legal and institutional response remains consequential long after the November 2015 collapse. The 2024 settlement created a new civil-reparation structure, while the criminal case continued through an appeal-stage ruling that remained open to further legal steps.