Dam burst bosses were not ‘automatons’ for mining giant BHP

A lawyer representing 620,000 claimants in a Brazilian dam burst case has accepted that company running the operation was not acting solely on the orders of mining giant BHP. The Fundao Tailings Dam collapsed on November 2015 in south east Brazil, devastating the downstream villages of Bento Rodrigues and Paracatu de Baixo. The mining operation at the site was run by the company Samarco, which is owned by BHP and Vale. Alain Choo Choy KC for Pogust Goodhead, who are…