According to a forecast by the Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME), Brazil could become one of the top five producers of rare earth metals (REM) in the world in the coming years.
Restrictions on REM exports by China, which accounts for about 70% of global production, could spur the development of the REM mining sector in Brazil.
Brazil has the third largest proven REM reserves in the world (more than 21 million tonnes), behind only China (44 million tonnes) and Russia (28.5 million tonnes). The total number of reserves, however, could be more than 30 million tonnes, as the ion-adsorption rare earth deposits discovered in recent years are not currently taken into account. Nevertheless, the country is currently not a major REM exporter and its share in world production is less than 1%. The main REM deposits are located in the states of Minas Gerais, Goiás, Tocantins, Amazonas, and on the coasts of the Northern and North-Eastern regions.
According to the latest data published by the National Mining Agency (ANM), for 2023, the level of production of ‘monazite and rare earth metals’ was just over 4,000 tonnes. For Brazil, REM mining and processing is a relatively young sector of the mining industry, despite the fact that the first steps in this direction were taken since the 1940s. Nevertheless, the Brazilian government intends to actively develop this sector in the future.
As early as March 2021, Decree No. 10657 on the ‘Policy to Support Environmental Licensing of Investment Projects for the Extraction of Strategic Minerals’ was published, which defined the State’s strategy for REM and rare elements. Subsequently, Decision No. 2 of the National Secretariat of Geology, Mining and Mineral Processing of June 2021 classified REM (17 elements) and a number of rare metals (niobium, tantalum, thallium, lithium, tungsten, vanadium) as a group of minerals of importance in the field of high-tech production.
Currently, Brazil’s minor production of REMs comes from the mining of monazite sand, a primary raw material that is a phosphate of rare earth metals, thorium and uranium, with deposits in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Espirito Santo and Bahia.
Until recently, the INB Buena plant, opened in the late 1940s in the municipality of São Francisco de Itabapuana (Rio de Janeiro State) and operated by Indústrias Nucleares do Brasil, a state-owned uranium and heavy metal mining company, remained the largest monazite production and processing facility. Subsequently, the plant’s production capacity, as well as monazite mining in the country, has been significantly reduced and the company is now using for processing a limited amount of raw material accumulated in stockpiles over the past few years. In 2016. INB confirmed that the company does not produce REM as its monazite deposits have been exhausted.
In the last century, Brazil was one of the main producers of monazite sand, but the growth of mining and processing of this raw material in China has effectively pushed Brazil out of the global market. In addition, high costs, complex processing technology and the high risk of working with monazite due to its radioactivity have led to the fact that processing has virtually ceased, the technology for separating REM from monazite has been lost, and no research has been conducted in this area for more than 15 years. A small amount of monazite mined or stockpiled was exported abroad, mainly to China (from 2011 to 2023 INB exported more than 15,000 tonnes of monazite to the Asian country).
At the same time, both national and foreign mining companies are showing increased interest in developing Brazilian ionic clay deposits discovered in 2015 in the states of Goiás, Minas Gerais, and Bahia.
Their attractiveness stems from the fact that their geological characteristics are similar to Chinese clay deposits and they are the largest outside the Asian region. In addition, the REM content of Brazilian ionic clay is much higher than that of Chinese clay, averaging 1500 to 3000 ppm versus 600-900 ppm, respectively. For REM extraction, it is also possible to use the most simplified ionic clay purification technology identical to that used in China (using a light ammonium sulphate solution). The low labour cost and more loyal jurisdiction of the Brazilian government in terms of granting exploration and mining licences to national and foreign companies are also among the main reasons why foreign investors are more interested in Brazilian REM mining.
Australian and Canadian companies are gaining a foothold in Brazil
At the moment, Australian and Canadian mining companies are most actively developing Brazilian ionic clay deposits. A key project in this area is the Caldeira project, implemented by Australian company Meteoric Resources NL (MEI.AX) at mines in Poços de Caldas, Andradas and Caldas (Minas Gerais state). The project is positioned by the company as ‘a unique opportunity for the US and the European Union to guarantee REM supply’. The first phase, which will be completed by 2026, is expected to produce 10,000 tonnes (5% of global demand) of neodymium and praseodymium (Nd/Pr) per year, with further capacity expansion to 20,000 tonnes by 2030.
Australia’s Viridis Mining and Minerals (VMM) is also planning to establish a foothold in Poços de Caldas with its Colossus project. In early March 2024, VMM and the state of Minas Gerais signed a memorandum of understanding to raise more than $270m to support the project, which is currently in the exploration phase. The first annual REM oxide production and processing facility is expected to be operational by 2027/28.
Additionally, Austrlalian Equinox Resources plans to develop its acquired 1,755 square kilometre Campo Grande property in Bahia State, which is rich in monazite sand and ionic clay deposits. Similarly, Australia’s Brazil Critical Minerals is exploring for ionic clay deposits at the Ema, Apui REE, Apui ENE REE and Trés Estados projects in Amazonas State. Also, the St George Mining company is developing a niobium and REM project at the Araxá project in the state of Minas Gerais.
Canadian companies are most active in the states of Goiás and Rio Grande do Sul. In particular, Aclara Resources is developing the Modulo Carina project to mine ionic clays with high concentrations of neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium in the municipality of Nova Roma (Goiás). In turn, Canada’s Appia Rare Earths & Uranium Corp. owns 70% of the assets of the PCH project in the municipality of Cachuerinha (Rio Grande do Sul state). The company owns about 41,000 hectares of land with large ionic clay deposits (52.8 million tonnes). Drilling is currently underway at two mines: Target IV and Zona Buriti.
In addition to Australian and Canadian companies, US and British transnational companies (TNCs) are also gradually entering the country, noting that Brazilian REM mining is badly needed against the backdrop of Beijing’s dominance in the sector.
However, in addition to foreign TNCs, Brazilian mining companies are already making «big moves» in REM mining. For example, in early January 2024, Brazil’s Serra Verde began commercial REM processing at its Phase I facility and mining at the Pela Emu mine in the municipality of Minasu (Goiás state). The company plans to reach a production capacity of 5,000 tonnes per year in the near future, and 10,000 tonnes by 2030. Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Mineração (CBMM) also operates a pilot plant for the production and separation of pyrochlore (a mineral representing a compound of niobium and rare earth elements) at the world’s largest niobium mine in the municipality of Arashá (Minas Gerais state). However, CBMM sees no prospect for industrial-scale production to come on stream in the short term, as this would require an additional investment of around US$200 million. The Morro do Ferro project (Minas Gerais state), led by Mineração Terras Raras SA, and Rocha da Rocha (Bahia), controlled by Brazilian Rare Earths and backed by Australian investment, are also at the feasibility study stage.
Thus, REM production in Brazil is quite promising, although it is not without circumstances that may partially limit full-fledged mining in this area. Nevertheless, in the near future, as the confrontation with China intensifies, Western mining TNCs will increasingly enter the country and invest in the sector of Brazilian REM mining.
Mikhail Ilevich, junior research fellow at the Centre for Scientific and Analytical Information at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences
