Brazil demands local rare‑earth processing
Brazil announced plans requiring foreign partners to process rare earths domestically instead of exporting raw ore, linking access to raw materials with local downstream activity and job creation. The measure signals that sourcing diversification away from China may now include industrial‑policy strings tied to processing capacity. (scmp.com)
Brazil said this week that foreign companies will have to process rare earths inside the country if they want access to Brazilian deposits. (scmp.com) Leonardo Durans, a senior official at Brazil’s industry ministry, said on Monday that the government will demand “domestic technological development and job creation” from investors. He said Brazil would talk with the United States, the European Union and China rather than pick one side. (scmp.com) The announcement came two months after the United States International Development Finance Corporation signed a $565 million financing package for Serra Verde’s Pela Ema mine in Goiás. The agency said on February 4 that the loan would help expand a Brazilian source of heavy rare earth elements outside Asia. (dfc.gov, serraverde.com) Rare earths are a group of metals used in permanent magnets that go into electric vehicles, wind turbines and military systems. Mining them is only the first step; the harder business is separating and refining them into usable oxides, metals and magnets. (iea.org, serraverde.com) Brazil is trying to move from selling rock to keeping more of that middle step at home. Durans said the country’s position had “matured,” and the government now wants foreign capital tied to factories, processing know-how and local jobs. (scmp.com) That push runs into the current map of the industry. The International Energy Agency says China controlled about 91 percent of global rare earth separation and refining and 94 percent of permanent magnet production in 2024. (scmp.com, iea.org) Brazil has the geology to bargain harder. Durans said the country holds about 10 percent of global critical mineral reserves, and the United States Geological Survey lists Brazil among the countries with the world’s largest rare earth resources. (scmp.com, usgs.gov) Its operating base is still small. Serra Verde says it began commercial production in 2024 and expects Phase I to produce at least 5,000 tonnes a year of rare earth oxide, rising to 6,500 tonnes a year by the end of 2027. (svpm.com.br, serraverde.com) China’s policy changes have added urgency for every country trying to build an alternative supply chain. The South China Morning Post reported that Beijing tightened export controls in October and kept a separate licensing regime for seven rare earth elements introduced in April 2025. (scmp.com) Brazil has already started building pieces of the downstream chain through MagBras, a program led by the National Service for Industrial Training, or SENAI, to develop a domestic permanent magnet supply chain. The new demand from Brasília is that miners and foreign buyers help build the rest of it on Brazilian soil. (scmp.com)
