Environment

• Friday, November 27th 2015 - 11:07 UTC

  Australia's BHP denies UN report on 'toxic' mine spill from collapsed dam in Brazil

  

  Australian mining giant BHP says mud spilled by the devastating collapse of a dam at a Brazilian mine is not toxic. On Thursday the UN said the dam burst at the Samarco mine unleashed a flood equivalent to “20,000 Olympic swimming pools of toxic mud”.

• Thursday, November 26th 2015 - 17:39 UTC

  UK's Cammell Laird will build BAS new £200 million polar research ship

  

  The Birkenhead shipyard Cammell Laird said it saw off competition from Europe and beyond including Korea and Singapore to be selected as the preferred bidder to build a new vessel for the UK-funded Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). The contract was signed last week and it is expected that full production will start in June next year, and on completion the vessel will be operated by NERC’s British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

• Friday, November 20th 2015 - 10:16 UTC

  BHP Billiton and Vale face civil lawsuit of US$ 3.69bn over dam collapse in Brazil

  

  A BHP Billiton and Vale joint venture in Brazil is facing its first civil lawsuit over the dam collapse at its iron ore mine on November 5 that buried a town and contaminated the region's main river.

• Friday, November 13th 2015 - 09:23 UTC

  Mine disaster: Brazil fines BHP Billiton and Vale; expects companies to pay cleanup costs

  

  Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has slapped preliminary fines worth 250 million Reais ($94 million) against a BHP Billiton-Value owned mine in Minas Gerais state where two dams burst, killing at least seven people.

• Wednesday, November 11th 2015 - 07:07 UTC

  Brazil's mining disaster impacts BHP Billiton shares on fears of cleanup costs

  

  Investors continued to dump shares in mining giant BHP Billiton Ltd. following the deadly dam burst last week at its jointly owned iron-ore mine in Brazil, even as the company sought to clarify responsibility for the disaster that has already claimed the lives of three people.

• Tuesday, November 10th 2015 - 08:40 UTC

  Global temperatures are 1.02C above 1850/1900 average, and climbing, warns UK Met Office

  

  Global temperatures are set to rise more than one degree above pre-industrial levels according to the UK's Met Office. Figures from January to September this year are already 1.02C above the average between 1850 and 1900.

• Tuesday, November 10th 2015 - 08:05 UTC

  Brazil's mining disaster forces cities 300km downstream to cut drinking water supply

  

  Mud and wastewater from burst dams at a Brazilian iron ore mine cut off drinking water and raised health and environmental concerns in cities more than 300 km downstream on Monday, amid increasingly dire search efforts in a village devastated by the mudslides.

• Monday, November 9th 2015 - 08:30 UTC

  North of Chile rattles with a series of tremors which were felt in Argentina

  

  North of Chile has been rocked by a series of tremors during early Saturday and most of Sunday, but no injuries or damage has been reported, the University of Chile's Seismology Institute said. The earthquake shook an estimated 20 cities, Arica, Cuya, Pocon Chile, Camina, Mamiña and Pisagua, the national emergency management office said.

• Monday, November 9th 2015 - 08:02 UTC

  Mining disaster in Brazil: 28 remain disappeared; BHP Billiton CEO flying to Minas Gerais

  

  Brazilian authorities are still struggling to determine what caused the rupture in dams at an iron ore mine and desperately working to recover the bodies of as many as 28 people believed to have been swept away in the massive mudflow and flood.

• Wednesday, November 4th 2015 - 07:18 UTC

  Australia announces construction of new icebreaker and more funds for Antarctic research

  

  The Australian government has provided the first look at Australia's new icebreaker, a ship it says will offer scientists unprecedented and extended access to the Southern Ocean and Antarctica.