Page 79 - Annual Report 2020

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Strategic Report

Governance at BHP

Directors’ Report
Relevant legal proceedings: Key decisions on the fishing bans Key decisions expected for resettlement Remuneration Report
in Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais and other priority areas On 8 January 2020, the Mariana Court extended the deadline for
In 2016, the Federal Court of Linhares imposed a ban on fishing final delivery of the collective resettlements of Bento Rodrigues
activities in the coastal area of the state of Espírito Santo. The and Paracatu de Baixo works, enforceable by potential fines for
request to revoke the injunction was denied on 10 July 2020. non-compliance, until 27 February 2021. BHP Brasil, Vale and
In April 2020, Fundação Renova challenged the precautionary Samarco appealed this decision given the factors impacting delays
conservation restriction preventing fishing for native fish species that are outside of the control of Fundação Renova. A final ruling
is pending.
in the Rio Doce in Minas Gerais state. To date, the restriction Financial Statements
remains in place. BHP Group Limited, BHP Group Plc and BHP Brasil are involved
Since January 2020, the 12th Federal Court of Belo Horizonte in legal proceedings relating to the Samarco dam failure.
has opened discussion over 12 enforcement proceedings linked For more information on the significant legal proceedings in which
to the R$20 billion and R$155 billion public civil claims. These BHP is currently involved, refer to section 6.6.
enforcement proceedings seek to expedite the remediation
process related to the Fundão dam failure. The claims for these
proceedings are mostly related to programs provided for in the Progress on our commitments
Agreements and actions executed by Fundação Renova. Issues Following the investigation into the causes of the dam failure,
covered by these 12 new proceedings include environmental Samarco and its shareholders implemented specific actions
recovery, human health, food safety regarding fish and agricultural to help prevent a similar event from occurring, including a plan
products irrigated with Rio Doce water and ecological risk to decommission the Germano dam. Additional information
assessment, resettlement of affected communities, infrastructure Due to legislative changes in Brazil, Samarco is currently progressing
and development, registration and indemnities, resumption of plans for the accelerated decommissioning of its upstream tailings
economic activities, water supply for human consumption and dams (the Germano dam complex). Plans for the decommissioning
hiring of technical advisers to impacted people among other are at a basic design level. Funding for CY2020 and CY2021 was
key delivery areas. approved by the BHP Board in April 2020, including for initial
buttressing services, spillway construction and regrading activities.
Preliminary works started in April and a small impact on schedule
has been experienced due to COVID-19.
For information on our ongoing management of tailings dams,
refer to section 1.7.10. More information on the health, safety and Shareholder information
environmental performance at our NOJVs is available at bhp.com.

BHP Annual Report 2020 77