MELBOURNE/RIO DE JANEIRO - Mining giant Brazil has big ambitions to build a rare earths industry as Western economies push to secure the metals needed for magnets used in green energy and defence and break China's dominance of the supply chain.
Output is set to grow, analysts, mining CEOs and investors say, supported by Western government incentives that are also accelerating a global rare earths refining and processing industry. "Serra Verde and Brazil have significant competitive advantages that could underpin the development of a globally significant rare earths industry over the long term," Serra Verde CEO Thras Moraitis told Reuters.
"Getting money at the moment is tough," Nick Holthouse, chief executive of Australian-listed developer Meteoric Resources, told Reuters. Its CEO, Bernardo Da Veiga, highlighted Brazil's low operating costs as an advantage over rivals like Australia, where he said a truck driver at an iron ore mine would earn up to A$200,000 a year plus food and accommodation.
The challenge is to stimulate production and build partnerships to promote element separation technologies and supply chain development, the ministry said. It is also looking into rare earths recycling.