Brazil's Samarco Mineração SA expects to pay up to 2 billion reais ($512.5 million) this year to 19,000 families affected by the 2015 mining disaster in the
state of Minas Gerais, the foundation created to pay the victims said Wednesday.
The first families to receive payments will be "the most vulnerable," said Roberto Waak, president of the foundation.
The disaster, Brazil's worst environmental catastrophe, occurred when a dam designed to hold back mine waste burst in November 2015, killing 19 people and leaving a trail of destruction for hundreds of kilometers.
Samarco and parent companies Vale SA and BHP Billiton Ltd. said in June that they had signed a deal with Brazilian authorities that settled a 20 billion-real ($5.30 billion) lawsuit related to the accident.
Waak, speaking on the sidelines of a mining event, estimated the total number of families entitled to receive damages would eventually rise to 60,000, but he did not say how much the remaining families would receive or when.
So far the foundation has spent 4.2 billion reais to repair damage, according to information posted on its website.
Around 500 houses built by the foundation are expected to be delivered early next year, Waak said.
Samarco's operations have been halted since the disaster.
