By Sam Tobin
LONDON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - BHP was on Monday refused permission to appeal against a ruling that it is liable for the 2015 collapse of a dam in southeastern Brazil, in a London lawsuit potentially worth tens of billions of pounds.
In November, London's High Court ruled BHP was legally responsible for the collapse of the Fundao dam in Mariana, southeastern Brazil, which was owned and operated by BHP and Vale's Samarco joint venture.
BHP's application for permission to appeal that ruling was denied by the High Court, though BHP said it will apply directly to the Court of Appeal.
"We will take our appeal to the Court of Appeal," a BHP spokesperson said in a statement. "BHP will continue to robustly defend the remaining phases of this action in parallel.
"Brazil is the most appropriate avenue to provide full and fair remediation to those impacted."
The claimants' lawyers have previously valued the lawsuit, one of the largest in English legal history, at up to 36 billion pounds ($48.26 billion) and were seeking nearly 200 million pounds in legal fees after their initial victory.
The initial stage of the case was to determine whether BHP was liable to the claimants, with a further trial to decide on damages to be paid due to begin in October, with a ruling likely at some point in mid-2027.
Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians, dozens of local governments and around 2,000 businesses sued BHP over the collapse of the Fundao dam, which was Brazil's worst environmental disaster.
The collapse unleashed a wave of toxic sludge that killed 19 people, left thousands homeless, flooded forests and polluted the length of the Doce River.
Judge Finola O'Farrell ruled last year that BHP should not have continued to raise the height of the dam, which ultimately caused its collapse.
($1 = 0.7459 pounds)
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by William James)
