Brazil mining regulator unveils 2024-27 strategic plan

Brazilian mining regulator ANM published its strategic plan for the 2024-27 period.

The plan contains six main areas, including actions to increase safety; encourage the adoption of sustainable practices; create an environment that facilitates investments in research, production and mineral transformation; expand reserves of strategic minerals for the energy transition; increase the supply of strategic mineral inputs for food security; and improve socioeconomic conditions of municipalities that are hosting mining activity.

The full plan can be seen here.

The government and industry stakeholders are currently working to diversify the country’s mining sector, which is heavily dependent on the iron ore segment.

These efforts are focused on minerals associated with the energy transition, and some progress has been made.

"We’re starting our internal research processes regarding mineral sector investment plans for the 2025-29 period. We’re already seeing signs that there is an increase in the intention to invest in projects associated with the energy transition, mainly lithium," Paulo Soares, communications director at mining association Ibram, told BNamericas. 

BNamericas takes a look at some recent initiatives in the lithium and rare earths segments. 

LITHIUM 

Australia-listed Pilbara Minerals announced an all-share transaction to acquire Latin Resources Limited, the owner of the Salinas lithium project in Minas Gerais state. 

"The acquisition follows an extensive period of project assessment globally in which we rank Latin Resources’ Salinas project at the top of our list when benchmarked holistically across a range of key criteria," Pilbara Minerals’ managing director and CEO, Dale Henderson, said in a statement.

"Further, a comprehensive due diligence period has been conducted over the past six months, which has built out our understanding of the asset and the region’s potential. Importantly, the acquisition leverages Pilbara Minerals’ capability in hard rock lithium resource delineation, project development, operations and marketing experience," he said.

According to an investor presentation (available here), the Salinas project will demand capex of US$308 million, with US$253mn for its first phase and US$55mn for the second phase. 

RARE EARTHS 

Aclara Resources signed an MOU with Goiás state to accelerate the implementation of its Carina rare earths project.

The initiative involves extraction in Nova Roma municipality, with a planned investment of 2.8 billion reais (US$513mn).

“The project will be implemented in one of Goiás’ regions with the greatest needs, without causing any negative impact,” said governor Ronaldo Caiado in a statement. 

The construction phase will be completed within two years, with the production phase expected to begin in 62 months, according to the statement.

The company will establish partnerships with educational institutions to train a local labor force as the priority is to contract people, products and services from Goiás. The project will generate an estimated 5,700 jobs.

Aclara is also developing the Penco rare earths project in Chile.