Brazil judge orders Vale to pay for all damages from dam collapse

A Brazilian state judge on Tuesday ordered mining giant Vale to pay for all the damage caused by a tailings dam collapse that killed hundreds of people in one of the country's worst industrial accidents.

Judge Elton Pupo Nogueira in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, where the January 25 disaster happened, did not quantify the amount of money, but said 11 billion reais (USD 2.89 billion) of assets belonging to Vale would remain frozen.

"It was not possible to quantify only by technical and scientific criteria," the court said in a statement on its website, describing the ruling as the "first conviction" against Vale over the rupture.

The definition of value "is not limited to the deaths resulting from the event, as it also affects the local and regional environment, as well as the economic activities carried out in the affected areas."
The statement noted that Vale "did not deny responsibility for the disaster."
In response to the ruling, Vale reiterated its commitment to "repairing and helping all those affected by the dam rupture in Brumadinho."