By Brazil Stock Guide — Brazil’s federal government has established a formal procedure to recognize the fulfillment of Samarco’s remaining obligations related to the Mariana disaster, creating a path for the gradual close-out of commitments that are still being carried out nearly two years after the new Rio Doce settlement was signed.
Resolution No. 42, issued by the Rio Doce Committee and published on Thursday, October 1, governs the discharge of so-called “obligations to perform” under Annex 19 of the settlement that are subject to federal oversight. The annex covers the transition and wind-down of programs, measures and responsibilities inherited from the previous remediation framework.
Under the new rules, Samarco may formally request the discharge of an obligation once it considers the required work to have been completed. The responsible federal agency may call on an independent external auditor and must then conduct its own technical assessment before recommending either approval or denial of the request. The federal government’s final position will be formalized by the Chief of Staff’s Office.
The process may take up to 90 days from receipt of the auditor’s final report — or from Samarco’s discharge request when an audit is waived — and the deadline may be extended by a further 90 days for obligations deemed complex. Requests for additional information may also suspend the clock.
The measure does not change the value of the settlement and does not automatically reduce provisions related to the disaster. It does, however, establish the administrative mechanism through which specific obligations may formally cease to remain outstanding once the federal government recognizes that they have been fulfilled.
Annex 19 was designed to organize the transition and closure of the 42 programs originally carried out by Fundação Renova, as well as other remaining obligations stemming from the 2015 Fundão dam collapse.
Some of those measures have already moved close to completion. In Itueta and Resplendor, for example, Samarco carried out tests required under Annex 19 to determine whether water treatment using supplies drawn from the Rio Doce could resume. Independent auditor AECOM deemed the results technically adequate, and water utility Copasa resumed river withdrawals in both municipalities in February 2026.
Other obligations remain under discussion. One of the main outstanding issues involves works under the former Water Supply Systems Improvement Program, known as PG-32. The Minas Gerais State Committee and Samarco have disagreed over the implications of certain municipalities choosing not to join the new settlement and over whether projects that had not yet begun should remain direct execution obligations for the miner.
In February, the committee asked AECOM to assess each of those projects individually and determine whether they should continue to be treated as Samarco obligations. According to a Minas Gerais state government report, the technical assessments were scheduled for delivery between April and September 2026.
The dispute highlights why the discharge process matters: before an obligation can be formally closed, the government must determine not only whether the required work was completed, but also the precise scope of Samarco’s remaining obligation.
If authorities conclude that an obligation was not fulfilled or that there was an unjustified delay, Resolution 42 allows for the opening of a penalty proceeding. Samarco will have an opportunity to submit documentation or technical justification, and any fine or other sanction would not extinguish the underlying obligation itself.
The new Rio Doce settlement, signed in October 2024 and subsequently approved by Brazil’s Supreme Court, has an estimated total value of R$170 billion and replaced the previous remediation framework created after the Fundão dam collapse in 2015.
Of that amount, Samarco classifies R$32 billion as obligations to be carried out directly by the company, including compensation payments, resettlement programs and environmental remediation. By December 2025, R$22.8 billion of that amount had been executed, according to the company. Those figures cover the broader set of direct obligations under the new settlement and are not limited to Annex 19.
Samarco is jointly owned by Vale and BHP. Progress in obtaining formal discharge of individual obligations does not, by itself, create an immediate financial impact for its shareholders, but it may gradually reduce uncertainty over remediation commitments that remain open.
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