SAO PAULO, (Reuters) – Mining giants Vale VALE3.SA and BHP BHP.AX and their joint venture Samarco have presented Brazilian authorities with a new offer to settle reparations over the 2015 Mariana disaster, Vale said in a securities filing today.
The new proposal totals 140 billion reais ($26.09 billion), including 37 billion reais already disbursed in reparation measures, Vale said, confirming an earlier report from local newspaper O Globo.
The fresh offer is 13 billion reais higher than a previous one rejected by the Brazilian government.
It comes as authorities last week said they had presented the firms with a counteroffer seeking 109 billion reais, not including the amount already spent by the miners.
The collapse of a tailings dam at a Samarco iron ore mine near Mariana in Minas Gerais state in November 2015 created a vast flow of mud and mining waste that buried a nearby village, killing 19 people, leaving hundreds homeless and polluting the Doce River.
