Brazil releases preliminary results of mineral exploration round

Brazil’s mining regulator ANM announced the preliminary results of its third round of offers for mineral exploration areas.

Since last year, ANM has been auctioning areas that were already awarded but returned to the regulator.

In the third round, ANM offered 2,762 areas. Of the total, 1,663 (60%) attracted interest, and of these, 1,092 registered more than one expression of interest.

In the areas with more than one interested party, ANM will hold an electronic auction, which is expected to take place between June 9 and 23. The other areas will be awarded directly.

The government is offering the exploration concessions to attract investment and diversify the mining sector. Brazil is highly dependent on relatively few mining products, with iron ore representing two-thirds of sector revenue, followed by gold and copper.

Recently, ANM announced that it is planning to reoffer up to 50,000 mining areas for exploration, expecting to generate investments of up to 1bn reais (US$194mn). 

FOURTH ROUND

Even before the conclusion of the third round, ANM began the process of holding the fourth round of offers for exploration areas.

The regulator is due to hold a hearing on Wednesday to collect contributions from the public and mining players to draft the notice to offer 1,641 areas in the new round.