It is currently a joint-venture between the Brazilian Vale and the Australian BHP, each one holding 50% of the company's stocks.

It has offices and mining facilities in Mariana and Ouro Preto, as well as in cities of Espírito Santo, such as Anchieta, which hosts the Ponta Ubu unity.

On 5 November 2015, two dams in Mariana owned by Samarco that contained by-products of iron mining collapsed.

[5]In Brazil, Samarco/Vale was involved in the financing of dozens of political campaigns with contributions that reached R$80 million in just the 2014 general elections, and many of these same politicians are now tasked with investigating the company's responsibilities for the disaster and setting the amount of fines.

“Considering the magnitude of the disaster, has not been presented a strategic planning with emergency operations schedule for the way between the area of the event and the hydroelectric plant Risoleta Neves.” “It’s been seven months since the disaster, the company should already have taken emergency actions related to the mitigation of the effects.”[8]