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“The Western world is now looking at Brazil to reduce its dependence on China for rare earths, but Brazil still needs to advance its mineral exploration first,” he said.
In the past few months, the media has been constantly reporting on interest in the rare earths reserves in Brazil, mainly from the US.
Brazil has the second-largest reserves of rare earths in the world, at 21 million tonnes, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). China has the largest reserve of rare earths at 44 million tonnes.
USA Rare Earth was set to acquire Brazilian rare earths miner Serra Verde in an equity deal worth $2.8 billion, the companies announced in April.
Taboca plans to invest $100,000,000 over three years to expand resources and modernize plants, increasing production of tin and ferro-niobium-tantalum. After that, it intends to develop other materials found in its mines, such as rare earths.
Initial studies on rare earths will be continued this year focused in development of new and more sustainable technological routes.
According to Lasmar, China controls rare earth separation technology, and advancing along the rare earth value chain is extremely challenging — and the lack of skilled labor in Brazil is a factor that worsens the scenario in the country.
Renato Gonzaga, president of Brazilian Rare Earths in Brazil, shared a similar view with Fastmarkets.
“There is a significant gap between turning geological resources in the ground into a good product with traceability and reliable delivery. The debate in Brazil is somewhat superficial in assuming that this leap can be made quickly.
A more appropriate goal would be research and investment — starting, in the case of rare earths, with concentrates, then moving on to oxide separation, and finally to magnets. China took 50 years. Here, we have even more factors to improve, such as skilled labor and capital,” Gonzaga said.
Brazilian Rare Earths plans to go a step further in the value chain, not stopping at rare earths concentrate but also carrying out oxide separation in Brazil. “But for that it is a long marathon, like funding and human capital,” he said.
Fastmarkets’ rare earths analyst Adrian Godas highlights that Brazil is emerging as one of the most strategically important ex‑China rare earth jurisdictions, driven by its exceptional geological endowment and increasing alignment with Western supply chains.
The country is particularly rich in ionic adsorption clay deposits that are disproportionately enriched in high‑value magnet elements such as dysprosium and terbium.
“Looking forward, Brazil’s rare earth sector is transitioning from a single‑mine producer to a multi‑project development pipeline, but the pace and ultimate impact will depend on execution in processing and downstream integration.
Western governments and investors are actively financing Brazilian assets as part of a broader ‘mine‑to‑magnet’ strategy to reduce dependence on China, exemplified by the multi‑billion‑dollar acquisition of Serra Verde and associated funding programs.
However, a key structural challenge remains: Brazil currently lacks large‑scale separation and refining capacity, meaning that without parallel midstream investment, mined material risks continuing to flow to China for processing,” Godas said.
He added that trying to do this in situ in Brazil is currently a dream due to a lack of engineering and technical know-how. “This knowledge is scarce outside China and remains limited to a couple of companies like Iluka in Australia and the European players mentioned before. This is unlikely to change as REE metallurgy is considered among the most complex in the commodity space.”
Rare earths advancing in the value chain is not the only thing market participants are discussing in Brazil. During the event International Seminar on Critical and Strategic Minerals, organized by Brazilian Mining Association (Ibram), Vinicius Alvarenga, chief executive officer of lithium producer Companhia Brasileira de Litio (CBL), highlighted that no foreign industry participant will invest in Brazilian refining at the moment as it is impossible to compete with the Chinese.
“I don’t think there are good reasons to encourage the production of lithium carbonate and hydroxide in Brazil, unless there’s a premium for non-Chinese products, then yes, it will give an advantage to national products,” he said, adding that the narrative of connecting mining as merely extractivism without value-added technology has to end. “We do have a lot of technology and added value in our mining.”
Currently, there are three lithium operational plants in Brazil, owned by Sigma Lithium, CBL and AMG, and another 25 projects at different stages in Brazil.
Fastmarkets forecasts Brazilian mined production to be about 23,000 tonnes of LCE in 2026, increasing to about 101,000 tonnes of LCE in 2036.
The Brazilian government is now discussing a bill called PL2780/2024 to establish the National Policy for Critical and Strategic Minerals (PNMCE), which is seen by many market participants as a form of control by the state. Mining companies are actively in discussion with the government suggesting changes to the text.
The base text was approved by the Chamber of Deputies — currently the bill awaits further analysis and voting in the Federal Senate.
For Gonzaga, the bill is being introduced with excessive interventionism and it is far from being something that will benefit the industry. “The Senate should refine the text to avoid isolating Brazil in the international rare earths debate,” he said.
For Marcia Cunha, corporate manager at Viridis, Brazil also needs predictability that brings legal security to attract foreign investments.
“Brazil needs predictability to get funding and offtake agreements. It also needs solid and efficient regulation and more formal and better infrastructure for licensing so international investors can trust in us,” she said in an interview to Fastmarkets.
Viridis inaugurated a demonstration plant for the separation of rare earth carbonates in May of this year. The company also signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with separator Solvay to supply critical rare earth feedstocks from Brazil to Solvay’s La Rochelle plant in France.
The Brazilian government published a document called “Brazil’s Critical Minerals: A Guide for Foreign Investors 2026” which states that, given its significant reserves of the main minerals considered critical by the world, Brazil aspires to produce a variety of inputs for batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, electric motors and other technologies from rare earths, graphite, silicon, niobium, copper, nickel, aluminum and manganese.
“Brazil has the minerals and has an abundant supply of clean and renewable energy. It wants to supply processed inputs to battery manufacturers and other technology producers wherever they may be. Brazil is also interested in building an integrated value chain with its partners in South America. In addition to ores and energy, we have a competent workforce that can be trained and mobilized and the capacity to develop national technology,” the document says.
Fastmarkets assessed the price for terbium oxide 99.99%, cip global at $4,200-4,600 per kg on Thursday June 11, unchanged since the assessment begun on March 19. And the price for dysprosium oxide 99.5%, cip global was similarly unchanged at $1,200-1,300 per kg on the same day, unchanged since April 2.
Fastmarkets’ daily assessment for the spodumene min 6% Li2O, spot price, cif China was $2,450-2,540 per tonne on June 11, up by 2.67% from the previous day’s assessment at $2,400-2,460 per tonne.
Fastmarkets’ daily assessment of lithium hydroxide monohydrate LiOH.H2O 56.5% LiOH min, battery grade, spot price cif China, Japan & Korea was $19.50-22.00 per kg on June 11, unchanged day on day.
And Fastmarkets’ daily assessment of lithium carbonate 99.5% Li2CO3 min, battery grade, spot prices cif China, Japan & Korea was $21.00-22.00 per kg on June 11, widening upward from $21.00-21.70 per kg a day earlier.
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