On the 5th of November a catastrophic failure of a tailings dam at the Brazillian Samarco Iron Ore mine caused Brazils largest ecological disaster and possibly the biggest tailings spill in the world.  The rupture in the dam unleashed a deadly mudslide that has travelled almost 500 kilometres killing 17 people, destroying 11 villages and pushing toxic sludge down Brazil's Doce river, headed toward the ocean.   

The mine is jontly owned 50 /50 by Vale and BHP Billiton. Whilst BHPBilliton like to claim they are committed to the highest level of safety and demonstrate world's best practice at their operations around the world, the Samarco disaster is just the latest in a long line of toxic legacies, environmental and human rights abuses that are occuring at their mine sites all around the world.

Today on Earth matters we will be hearing about some of those issues being raised by community campaigners at the companies annual general meetings over the last month.