Mining giant BHP could have to pay out billions of dollars in compensation after a UK court found it was liable for the Samarco dam disaster in Brazil that killed 19 people and released 43 million tons of mining waste into the environment.

High Court Justice Finola O’Farrell, in a closely watched decision released overnight on Friday, found the $215bn behemoth responsible for the collapse of the dam, stating that the catastrophe was “foreseeable”.

“Against the obvious signs of contractive, saturated tailings and numerous incidents of seepage and cracking, it was imprudent to continue to raise the dam along the alignment of the Setback in the absence of proper written analysis of the stability of the Setback and the attendant risks,” she wrote.

Samarco is an iron ore mine, located in the

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