Brazil & Southern Cone - February 2026

The US, countries in the European Union (EU), and others have turbo-charged efforts to secure mining raw materials to keep strategic parts of their economies running. Enter Latin America, with a host of large-scale mining countries eager to tap considerable reserves of such critical minerals. Chile has launched a national critical minerals strategy, while Argentina and Mexico have signed a strategic mining accord with Washington. Brazil, the heavyweight among the lot, is already ratcheting up production of rare earth elements and drawing up an industrial development plan.

With its huge resources, Brazil is likely to shape the global market of critical minerals in coming years. The country holds cobalt, nickel, and lithium, as well as the world’s second-largest rare earths reserves at 21m tonnes, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). It’s not surprising, then, that customers have come knocking on President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s door to seek access to Brazil’s reserves of these metals, which are used in a host of applications, from wind turbines and smartphones to satellites and laser weapons.

A central tenet of President Lula’s rare earths strategy is to ensure that Brazil doesn’t simply export another commodity but gains additional value by refining the minerals before selling them abroad. “Why do we talk so much about rare earths, so we can export raw materials in their natural state and then buy the goods processed in other countries at a premium price?” he said during an economic forum in Panama on 28 January. “Critical minerals and rare earth elements only make sense to enrich our countries if we have the courage to build partnerships and have them processed in our countries to generate wealth, jobs, and development.”

Growing production

Brazil is already ramping up production of rare earths. Serra Verde Group, whose controlling shareholder is UK-based private equity firm Denham Capital, began commercial production from its Pela Ema deposit in Goiás state in 2024 and expects to produce 5,000 tonnes of rare-earth oxide annually.

The company claims to be the only rare earths operation outside of China to produce all four critical magnetic rare earth elements (REEs): neodymium, praseodymium, terbium, and dysprosium. It says that, unlike most hard rock rare earth producers, the ionic clay deposit at Serra Verde can be mined with low-cost open-mining techniques and processed using simple, established technologies, resulting in lower operating costs and a smaller environmental impact.

These REEs are of particular interest to car companies. They use neodymium, dysprosium, and terbium to produce high-strength permanent magnets for motors in electric vehicles. Praseodymium is essential for producing high-strength magnesium alloys for aircraft engines. China controls over 90% of the global refined supply for all four of those REEs.

European investment

On 16 January the head of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, announced in Rio de Janeiro that the EU was closing in on a comprehensive agreement to help develop Brazil’s mineral treasures. “I also welcome that Europe and Brazil are moving toward a very important political agreement on critical raw materials,” Von der Leyen said beside Lula on the eve of the signing of the EU-Mercosur trade agreement in Paraguay on 17 January. “It will frame our cooperation on joint investment projects in lithium, nickel, and rare earths. This is key for our digital and clean transitions, and also for our strategic independence in a world where minerals tend to become an instrument of coercion,” she said.

Von der Leyen’s visit came at the height of President Trump’s threats in January to acquire Greenland, to a large extent for its rich mineral deposits. The US president also ordered his administration to sign up strategic alliances with potential suppliers, after China in the past year expanded the list of rare earth elements it has banned for export to the US. Those alliances are backed by a US$100bn line of credit from the US Export-Import Bank specifically for critical minerals and energy projects.

One of the EU’s selling points is that, unlike Washington, Brussels is keen on talks with Brazilian authorities over issues such as regional development, environmental protection, and industrial policy, and Brazilians seem to appreciate that. “We are accelerating the process of investments with the European Union, given the respect for public policies aimed at adding more value to the supply chain, and the industrialization in Brazil,” Ana Paula Repezza, the business director for Brazil’s trade and investment promotion agency (Apex), told business news outlet Jornal do Comércio.

European investments in five projects in the states of Minas Gerais, Bahia, and Piauí are expected to be announced in March, according to Apex. In the south of Minas Gerais, Australia’s Viridis Mining & Minerals is carrying out exploratory work. It has obtained preliminary financing from the Australian government, and interest from the Canadian and French governments, according to Folha de São Paulo newspaper.

Saudi interest

European partners are not the only ones interested. Brazil is also in talks with Saudi Arabia to advance critical minerals projects. During a visit to Riyadh in January, Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira discussed opportunities for the Saudi mining investment company Manara Minerals to expand its operations in strategic minerals. Manara already has investments in Brazil, such as its partnerships with Brazilian mining giant Vale.

“Brazil and rare earths are on the Saudi government’s list of priorities this year,” Marcelo Carvalho, the executive director of Australian-listed miner Meteoric Resources, told Bloomberg in January. Meteoric has a preliminary environmental permit to develop its Caldeira high-grade ionic adsorption clay deposits in southern Minas Gerais and expects to begin production in 2028.

Other Brazilian players are gearing up for production as well. On 9 January, Atlas Critical Minerals listed on the Nasdaq exchange in New York. The company, whose portfolio includes deposits of iron ore, nuclear-grade graphite, and uranium, owns 33 mineral rights across 53,000 hectares in Minas Gerais and Goiás. Initial testing revealed high recovery rates for magnetic REEs, as well as light and heavy rare earth elements. Indicative of mining companies in early stages of new development projects, the share price of Atlas Critical Minerals has fluctuated wildly this year, jumping to US$15 and then plummeting to just over US$6 in early February.

When President Trump announced plans for a nearly US$12bn critical minerals stockpile to aid US manufacturers, prices of some US rare earths miners more than doubled. As is the case with lithium, the white gold that regional leaders projected was to transform their economies, or many other commodities that have taken the region through boom-and-bust cycles, the future of rare earths and other critical minerals promises to be as much of a roller coaster ride.

Critical minerals summit

Several Latin American countries have signed agreements with the US government of President Donald Trump aimed at boosting cooperation and investment in mining projects to extract and process critical minerals. The deals were signed on 4 February in Washington, where the US hosted a summit to discuss the global market for critical minerals and rare earths. The summit was attended by representatives from over 50 countries, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, and Peru. Of the Latin American delegations, Argentina, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Peru signed new bilateral frameworks or memorandums of understanding with the US, while the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) announced a US-Mexico critical minerals action plan.

Start of new strategy

Brazil’s mining and energy ministry held an initial meeting on 21 January to discuss the study that will support the development of a national rare earths strategy (ENTR) and marks the start of the technical work on the project’s goals and methodology. According to a government press release, the study aims to provide technical support for policymakers, encourage responsible investments, strengthen the national industrial and technological base, and mitigate risks in the global supply chains of strategic minerals. Additionally, it includes the development of diagnostics on opportunities for value chain development, sustainability guidance, and proposals for governance and monitoring.