Asarco, a mining and smelting company based in Arizona, filed for bankruptcy four years ago.

This week, a court ruling in favor of Asarco will force Grupo Mexico SA de CV to pay out an estimated $6 million dollars in stocks and damages.

This money could help Asarco pay off more than $1 billion in asbestos-related environmental claims from Washington and eight other states, as well as the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Asbestos exposure is linked to the development of such diseases as lung cancer and mesothelioma.

The remaining funds could be put towards the cost of cleaning up of dozens of seriously polluted mining and smelting sites across the West.

The Asarco bankruptcy is considered the largest environmental-related bankruptcy in US history.

“This is a complete victory, and the thing that is most satisfying is that a big part of money will go to environmental cleanup in the western United States,” said Irv Terrell, a lawyer for Asarco.

Grupo Mexico purchased Asarco in 1999 to get its hands on Asarco’s majority interest in two lucrative Peruvian copper mines.

The judge ruled that Grupo Mexico had fraudulently transferred Asarco’s Peruvian mining interests to Americas Mining Corp. as part of a corporate conspiracy to force Asarco into bankruptcy.

It is expected that Grupo Mexico will appeal the ruling.

Asarco was founded over one hundred years ago, and operated mines and smelters throughout the West. When it declared bankruptcy, Asarco faced more than $11 billion in environmental claims involving across 75 sites.

Asarco was fielding approximately 95,000 asbestos-related claims.

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.