Revegetation and erosion control work was undertaken at the Santarem River after the 2015 Fundão tailings dam failure, as seen in this June 2017 photo. Courtesy of BHP

Vale and BHP signed a final agreement with Brazilian authorities Monday which “extinguishes” a US$5.3-billion claim from federal and state governments against the companies for the 2015 tailings dam collapse at their jointly owned Samarco mine.

The agreement also sets a two-year timeline to negotiate on the US$55-billion civil claim from Brazilian prosecutors.

(The US dollar figures of the lawsuits have increased from our last report on the Samarco negotiations due to fluctuations in the currency exchange rate.)

The companies signed the agreement early last year, but finalizing it was repeatedly delayed.

The dam failure killed 19 people, destroyed the small community of Bento Rodrigues, and severely polluted the Rio Doce watershed in November 2015.

Related: UN report on tailings calls for focus on safety over finances, says 341 killed in dam breaches since 2008

As part of the agreement, the companies agreed to give local communities two seats on the seven-member board of the Renova Foundation, which was set up by Samarco to manage the remediation and re-build communities. Previously, six were appointed by Samarco and one by a council of government agencies.

In a statement Vale said that the agreement “represents an important step towards solving the challenges caused by the Fundão tailing dam accident, especially by increasing the participation of the affected people in the governing bodies of the Renova Foundation.”

The companies had previously agreed to a settlement in 2016 with the state and federal governments, but that was vetoed by federal prosecutors, who demanded they pay more in damages.

It is not clear when the mine will re-open, as it still requires multiple permits to move forward, and Samarco has said it needs to renegotiate the terms of its debt. Before the dam failure, it was one of the world’s largest iron ore operations, produced 30 million tonnes of iron ore pellets annually.

A technical report on the dam collapse blamed the collapse on structural flaws in the dam.

The agreement is still subject to approval from Brazil’s 12th Federal Court of Minas Gerais, the court representing the state in which Samarco is located.