Brazil seeks $20.7bn from Vale, BHP over 2015 dam collapse

Brazil's government presented on Thursday a counteroffer requesting that miners Vale and BHP and their joint venture Samarco pay 109-billion reais ($20.74-billion) as reparations for a tailings dam collapse in 2015. The proposal is higher than a previous offer from the miners to pay the federal and local governments 72-billion reais to settle reparations for the disaster in the town of Mariana, Minas Gerais state.