LONDON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - A 5.0 billion pound ($6.6 billion) English lawsuit against Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP has been blocked, in a blow to a 200,000-strong Brazilian claimant group, seeking damages after a devastating dam failure in 2015.

A High Court judge in Manchester, northwestern England, has ruled that the largest group claim in English legal history could not proceed because it was an "abuse of the process of the court", according to a judgment published on Monday.

($1 = 0.7610 pounds) (Reporting by Kirstin Ridley, editing by Louise Heavens)