The mudflow created by the dam rupture ultimately travelled 600 kilometres to the ocean, creating a toxic brown plume visible from space. 700 people lost their homes, 8,500 fishermen lost their livelihoods, and 400,000 people lost access to fresh water. It is the worst environmental disaster in Brazil’s history.

The Germano mine is operated by Samarco Mineração SA, a joint venture of BHP and Vale SA. BHP is an Anglo-Australian owned multinational and the world's largest diversified mining and mineral resources company.

In the period that followed the dam collapse, BHP’s stock price plunged across all markets, falling 22% in Sydney and 23% in London and Johannesburg between 5 November 2015 and 30 November 2015. The class action will seek to recover losses to shareholders throughout this period, during which BHP’s combined market capitalisation fell by more than $25 billion.

The claim alleges that:

• BHP breached its obligations of continuous disclosure of material information to the ASX, by failing to inform of the market of the material risk of the failure of the Fundão dam and its knowledge of the likely catastrophic human, environmental and financial consequences of the dam’s failure;
• BHP engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct in its representations to the market that it put safety first and held itself to the highest standards of environmental safety in its projects across the globe, despite its failure to ensure that basic safety precautions were in place; and
• Shareholders suffered loss or damage as a result of BHP’s conduct.

A class action against BHP in the United States on behalf of investors that acquired New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) listed American Depository Shares settled on 9 August 2018. The US proceeding did not (and cannot) recover losses suffered in respect of shares traded on the ASX, LSE or JSE. Investors that participated in the US proceeding, who also acquired BHP shares on the ASX, LSE or JSE may also participate in this class action.