RIO DE JANEIRO, Rajab 27, 1437, May 04, 2016, SPA -- Federal prosecutors in Brazil said on Tuesday they filed a 155 billion-real ($43.5 billion) civil lawsuit against iron miner Samarco, and its owners Vale SA and BHP Billiton, for a collapsed tailings dam in November that killed 19 people and polluted a major river, according to Reuters. The lawsuit, which is also against the two states impacted by the spill and the federal government, is the result of a six-month investigation led by a task force set up after the disaster, prosecutors said in a statement. The total damages, they said, were calculated based upon the cost of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the United States. BP's total pre-tax charge for that spill reached $53.8 billion. The civil action is separate from the lawsuit that Samarco, Vale and BHP settled with Brazil's government in March in which the companies would pay an estimated 20 billion reais for damage caused by the spill. Federal and state prosecutors did not form part of that settlement. --SPA 00:51 LOCAL TIME 21:51 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w