“We’re very much looking forward to the trial because we’ve just spent the past 12 months reviewing hundreds of thousands of documents, emails, transcripts of meetings and messages, which we believe conclusively prove that very deliberate decisions were made by BHP all the way up to board level to be prioritising profit over safety.

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“This was the largest environmental disaster in Brazilian history. It’s up there with Exxon Valdez. It’s up there with the BP oil spill in terms of in terms of its scale. If the trial proceeds, we think the judgment is just going to be a shocking indictment of corporate governance failures and safety failures at BHP.”

A $4.7 billion provision to deal with the Samarco dam disaster and a $3.8 billion writedown of its loss-making Western Australian nickel operations weighed down BHP’s half-year profit in February.

BHP’s underlying profit for the half clocked in at $9.8 billion, but the nickel write-off and the Samarco charge cut that result by 86 per cent to $1.4 billion, its lowest in eight years.

In a quarterly update on Tuesday, the miner said it had hit production records for iron ore, Australia’s biggest export commodity, and is ramping up copper output to meet growing demand as the globe’s energy transition accelerates.

Chief executive Mike Henry said for the second consecutive year, BHP’s Pilbara iron ore mines had notched up record production of 255 million tonnes on the back of improvements to its supply chain.

“We finished the year with a strong fourth quarter, achieving several production records, and we are meeting current production and unit cost guidance for all commodities,” Henry said in an upbeat assessment of the company’s performance.

Average realised prices for copper and iron ore were higher this financial year, while metallurgical coal prices remained relatively stable, and nickel and energy coal prices were lower. BHP also talked up the prospects of its copper portfolio.

“We achieved a strong performance across our copper business globally, underpinned by the highest production in four years at Escondida and another year of record production from Spence in Chile,” Henry said.

“Successful integration at Copper South Australia has delivered additional production tonnes and exceeded the annualised synergies planned at the time of the Oz Minerals acquisition.”

BHP’s strong finish to the financial year beat investment bank Citi’s expectations. Forecast production guidance for the coming financial year was “largely as expected,” Citi said. The outlook for copper is up, iron ore flat, and coal down, it said.

BHP shares closed the trading day 0.8 per cent lower at $42.70.

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