SAO PAULO, Nov 13 (Reuters) - A Brazilian court on Friday froze 300 million reais ($78 million) of funds for miner Samarco Mineracao SA, the owner of a mine where two dams burst and killed at least nine people last week, and said the funds could only be used to pay for damages.
Samarco is a joint venture by two of the world's biggest mining companies, BHP Billiton Ltd BHP.AX BLT.L and Brazil's Vale SA VALE5.SA . The companies already face preliminary government fines of 250 million reais.
The prosecutors who requested the funds frozen said hundreds of families had their homes wiped out by a sea of mud unleashed when the dams burst, destroying 80 or 100 buildings and leaving most of one village homeless, according to a court statement.
The judge in Minas Gerais state who froze the accounts said Samarco had a responsibility to compensate the victims regardless of the results of an ongoing investigation into the extent of its responsibility for the disaster.
A press representative for Samarco said it hadn't been notified about the decision.
($1 = 3.8 reais)