Brazilian mining company Samarco committed this Monday to pay at least 1 billion reais (about 260 million US dollars) for the environmental damage caused by the collapse of two of its mining-waste dams… The courts had already frozen 78 million dollars belonging to Samarco—owned by Brazil’s Vale and the Anglo‑Australian company BHP Billiton—to pay for the damages from the tragedy that occurred 11 days ago and is considered one of the worst environmental disasters in Brazil’s history… The accident has so far left ten people dead, dozens missing, and an entire village buried under tons of mud and iron-ore waste… The landslide also contaminated 500 kilometers of the Doce River in Minas Gerais and the neighboring state of Espírito Santo, flooding communities along its path, destroying crops, and killing fish, turtles, and other animals… Experts predict that addressing the damage from this disaster could take up to 100 years.