Swedish mining firm Boliden is exempted from paying compensation for toxic spill in Spain in 1998

By DAVID BRUNAT
Associated Press

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Sweden’s mining firm Boliden has been exempted from paying 89 million euros, or about $98 million, in compensation for the cleaning of a toxic sludge spill that occurred in 1998 in southern Spain. A court in the city of Seville delivered the verdict on Friday. The ruling dismissed claims by the regional government of Andalusia, which demanded that Boliden pay for the environmental cleaning operation following the breakage of a polluting pond at a mine in Aznalcóllar that was managed by the Swedish company at that time. The Aznalcóllar disaster is, in terms of volume, the second worst toxic spill in Spain’s history.