Brazil brings together three trump cards to attract investment in critical minerals – BNamericas
Brazil has been seen by investors and global companies as a central country for the critical and strategic minerals supply chain, and three main factors stand out as crucial to reinforce this outlook.
Among the factors mentioned by specialists are significant mineral resources, energy supply, and the capacity to attract investments. These elements were mentioned by specialists during an event on critical minerals held this week by the Instituto Brasileiro de Mineração (IBRAM), an association that represents the largest mining companies in Brazil.
“Brazil has very special conditions to stand out in the global critical minerals market. In addition to its mineral reserves, the country has energy availability, diplomatic autonomy, and the ability to develop policies that increase value added to production. This is a strategic opportunity to strengthen national development and Brazil’s position on the international stage,” said Maurício Carvalho Lyrio, secretary for Climate, Energy and the Environment at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while taking part in one of the event’s panels.
In recent months, Brazil has seen a series of investment announcements in projects and assets associated with critical minerals, including rare earths, lithium and copper, among others.
Despite these three competitive factors, companies still point to challenges that Brazil must overcome to attract more investment.
One of the challenges is to develop a qualified workforce and a local supplier chain to transform the significant mineral resources into mineral reserves, an effort that requires drilling work, metallurgical testing, and engineering to define such reserves.
“I believe this is the first issue that the Brazilian government must address: ensuring that the existing resources are turned into bankable projects,” said Ramón Barúa Costa, CEO of Aclara Resources to BNamericas.
The company, headquartered in Canada, owns the rare earth project Carina in Brazil, with investments estimated at around US$780 million (mn).
In addition to this element, the executive also mentioned another important point for attracting investments to the critical minerals chain in Brazil.
“At the top of the [priority] list is the speed of issuing licenses. Licensing standards must remain high – environmental and social sustainability must always be at the center of the agenda – but the evaluation process needs to be agile in order to seize the market’s windows of opportunity,” he said.
(The original version of this content was written in Portuguese)
Subscribe to the leading business intelligence platform in Latin America with different tools for Providers, Contractors, Operators, Government, Legal, Financial and Insurance industries.
The company’s CEO, Makko DeFilippo, spoke with BNamericas to detail the company’s plans for the coming years and also discuss the outlook for the c…
Entity in the sector warns that the proposal may widen loopholes for illegal mining, despite providing for traceability, and intends to act in the …
Subscribe to Latin America’s most trusted business intelligence platform.
Get critical information about thousands of Mining & Metals projects in Latin America: what stages they’re in, capex, related companies, contacts and more.
