Brazil has become the arena for a highly competitive race for energy transition minerals, above all those needed for electric vehicles and clean energy generation, such as lithium and rare earths, while there are also ventures aimed at boosting the output of copper, nickel, and graphite — all this in addition to niobium, of which Brazil is already by far the leading producer, accounting for more than 85 percent of the total world output.
This race has brought to Brazil a number of companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), ranging from newly listed junior companies having a low market value to major corporations such as Pilbara Minerals, the world's largest producer of hard-rock lithium. The number of Australian companies operating in Brazil is now approaching thirty, with their main focus on rare earths and lithium, while also including copper, gold, titanium, and nickel projects.
It is not only Australians, however, that have their eye on Brazil. Minerals for the energy transition are also attracting the attention of companies listed in Canada and the United States, which until now had been more focused on gold and copper.
In the case of lithium, projects are largely concentrated in the north of Minas Gerais, specifically in the Jequitinhonha River Valley, now rechristened the Lithium Valley, having its epicenter in the municipalities of Araçuaí and Itinga while extending as far as the Salinas region. The Minas Gerais state government forecasts that, by 2030, some R$ 30 billion (around US$ 5 billion) will have been invested in lithium projects in the state, considering that in 2023 alone investments amounted to over R$ 5.5 billion (almost US$ 1 billion).
At this moment five companies stand out in lithium projects in Minas Gerais, with three of them (Sigma Lithium, AMG Brasil, and CBL) already in production. A fourth, Atlas Lithium, is currently installing its plant and about to start operations, while Lithium Ionic has had its project duly licensed and is now beginning engineering work.
Sigma Lithium, which is already producing 270,000 tons of lithium concentrate per year, has obtained financing from BNDES, the National Development Bank, in the amount of R$ 486.7 million (approximately US$ 80 million) to expand its output capacity to 520,000 tons per year. However, the company is aiming higher still: its target is 920,000 tons per year, to be achieved by 2027, despite the drop in lithium prices over the last two years, shrinking more than 85 percent. From an average of around US$ 80,000 per tonne, by the end of 2023 it had fallen to US$ 10,000 a ton in 2024. Producers expect prices to stabilize in 2025 and then to start recovering from 2026 onward. Sigma is the third lowest-cost producer of lithium concentrate, thanks to its low operating costs. The company also claims to be carbon neutral, thanks to its Greentech process. It is now planning to start producing lithium sulfate (Li2SO4), hopefully as soon as 2027.
Another major lithium producer in Brazil is AMG Brasil, which has been operating a concentrates plant since 2018. In the first half of 2024 it began work on the first phase of its lithium project, expanding output capacity at its operation located at Nazareno and São Tiago, neighbouring municipalities in southern Minas Gerais. As a result, capacity grew from 90,000 to 130,000 tons per year at the close of the first quarter of 2024, for a US$ 50 million investment. Another AMG project involves the installation of a lithium carbonate conversion plant. Begun in 2022, the project is scheduled for completion in the second quarter of 2028. Once the new plant is brought on stream, AMG Brasil expects an annual output of approximately 15,000 tons. The investment budget for the project is in the range from US$ 250 million to US$ 270 million.
CBL (Companhia Brasileira de Lítio), in operation since 1991, currently has a small output (1,500 tons a year) of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE), used in battery manufacture. The company also produces 42,000 tons a year of spodumene concentrate with a 5.5 percent Li2O content. In addition to mining spodumene, a mineral containing lithium, the company processes part of the raw material into lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide, both used in batteries.
The next lithium producer to begin operations in Brazil is expected to be Atlas Lithium, now nearing completion of the first stage of its Neves Project in Minas Gerais, where it holds the lithium mining rights to fifty-four areas in the municipalities of Araçuaí, Itinga, Coronel Murta, Rubelita, Taiobeiras, and Virgem da Lapa. Budgeted at US$ 49.5 million, this stage calls for an output level of 150,000 tons of battery-grade spodumene concentrate. The second stage of the project, yet undefined in terms of timing and budget, will increase annual capacity to 300,000 tons. The company also has two further projects, named Clear and Salinas, now at the exploration stage. Both are located in the same state of Minas Gerais.
Lithium Ionic is preparing to start work on its Bandeira lithium project, located in the Lithium Valley region, where it holds areas totalling 157 hectares. This is barely 1 percent of Lithium Ionic's extensive 14,182-hectare (nearly 55 square miles) mining rights package in the Lithium Valley, a region now seen to be of global importance for the production of hard-rock lithium. The project envisages an underground mine with a useful lifetime of 14 years, producing an average 178,000 tons a year of high-quality spodumene concentrate having a 5.5 percent Li2O content. The programmed capex for the project is US$ 266 million, with maintenance costs, over the useful lifetime of the mine, amounting to US$ 81 million.
PLS (former Latin Resources), in which Pilbara Minerals holds control interest, reports that its Salinas project (now Colina project) in Minas Gerais has reached an advanced stage of mineral exploration. According to Pilbara, Salinas has the potential to become one of the top ten hard-rock lithium operations globally, excluding Africa. Colina project accounts for approximately 20 percent of the overall mineral resources currently held by Pilbara Minerals and could provide up to 30 percent of its output. A Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) announced by Latin Resources in 2023 outlined the potential for Salinas to be developed in two stages to deliver a combined average annual output of approximately 499,000 tons of spodumene concentrate having a 5.2 percent Li2O content, over an eleven-year initial productive lifetime, based on resources then estimated at 45.2 million tons with a 1.32 percent Li2O content. That estimate was later increased. The project could become operational as early as 2026, requiring investments of US$ 253 million in the first stage followed by US$ 55 million in the second stage. Output could be as much as 525,000 tons per year of spodumene concentrate with a 5.5 percent Li2O content, plus an additional 159,000 tons with a lower 3 percent content.
In addition to those mentioned so far, several other companies are taking part in the race for lithium, in Minas Gerais and elsewhere. Australia's Perpetual has announced plans to invest R$ 400 million (approximately US$ 66 million) in Minas Gerais in research, development, and operation of its Raptor, Isabella, and Itinga projects, focusing on the extraction of lithium and rare earths, in five areas: Araçuaí, Salinas, Itaobim, Governador Valadares, and Poços de Caldas. In Minas Gerais, the company holds mineral exploration permits for areas adding up to approximately 12,500 hectares (48 square miles), all located in the Lithium Valley area.
Foxfire Metals Ltda. is conducting a mineral exploration campaign in the Lithium Valley, where it has discovered rare earth elements with anomalous values and high levels of lithium, rubidium, niobium and zirconium.
Australia's Oceana Lithium is investing approximately US$ 3.7 million in a lithium extraction project in the municipality of Solonópole, in the northeastern state of Ceará. The company holds 10 mineral exploration permits, totaling 124 km2 (48 square miles), in an area considered highly promising for lithium. Oceana's Brazilian subsidiary, Ceará Lítio, has identified a corridor, approximately 20 km long, holding mineralized pegmatite.
Spark Energy Minerals Inc., a Canadian company, has acquired Tristar Energy Corp.'s exploration permits in the Lithium Valley in Minas Gerais. The permits cover 23 areas totaling 396 km2 (153 square miles). The location is less than ten miles from Sigma Lithium's Grota do Cirilo project, Lithium Ionic's Itinga project, and Atlas Lithium's Neves project.
Solis Minerals, an Australian company, has acquired two spodumene projects (Jaguar, in Bahia, and Borborema, in Rio
Grande do Norte) and has already announced favourable results from a surface survey at Borborema, which identified three new outcropping pegmatite bodies containing lithium. At the Jaguar project, Solis has found rock fragments with up to 4.95 percent Li2O along a spodumene-rich pegmatite body measuring 1 kilometre long by 50 metres wide.
In 2024 Brazil joined the ranks of rare earth element producers, when Serra Verde Mineração began commercial production at its venture located at Pela Ema, in the state of Goiás, initially planned to produce 5,000 tons a year. The company mines a large ionic clay deposit having a long useful lifetime and holding a large volume of high-value heavy and light rare earths, mainly Neodymium (Nd), Praseodymium (Pr), Terbium (Tb), and Dysprosium (Dy), all essential for the energy transition. The company has made plans to expand output at its first-stage operation by optimizing the plant and is now assessing the potential for a second-stage expansion that could double its output by 2030. The company was included in the list of projects approved by the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP), which supports ventures judged to be of critical importance for the global energy transition. Additionally, the Energy and Minerals Group and Vision Blue Resources have led a $150 million investment at Serra Verde. The MSP, a cooperative undertaking by fourteen partner countries together with the European Union, under the current chairmanship of South Korea, aims to enhance the development of diversified and sustainable supply chains in critical energy minerals.
In addition to Serra Verde, there are several other rare earths-focused ventures in Brazil at different stages of development. The projects closest to completion are those of Aclara Resources, Meteoric, and Viridis, the first in the state of Goiás and the other two in Minas Gerais.
Aclara Resources, a company in the Hochschild group with a Toronto stock exchange listing, plans to invest US$ 599 million in the implementation of its Carina project, located in the municipality of Nova Roma, in Goiás. The project is currently at the mineral exploration phase and is planned to become operational in 2028. Aclara is expected to supply approximately 13 percent of the global market for heavy rare earths, mainly neodymium and praseodymium, a market which now has China as its main supplier.
Meteoric Resources, listed on the Australian stock exchange, has a project to produce rare earth elements at its Caldeira deposit, located in Poços de Caldas, Minas Gerais. Caldeira holds inferred resources amounting to 409 million tons of ionic clay with grades of 2.626 ppm of rare earth element oxides (REOs). The company says it may invest up to R$ 1.5 billion (approximately US$ 250 million) to bring the project on stream by 2027. The idea is to start off with a capacity of 10,000 tons of REOs, which would mean supplying as much as 5 percent of worldwide demand for Neodymium and Praseodymium. At a later stage the project could easily be scaled up, the company says, possibly reaching 20,000 tons of REOs by 2030. That would be equivalent to approximately 7,000 tons of Neodymium and Praseodymium.
Viridis Mining Minerals, also listed in Australia, is preparing an engineering study for its Colossus ion adsorption clay project, adjacent to Meteoric Resources' Caldeira deposit at Poços de Caldas. Viridis's current focus is on the alkaline complex within the Colossus project. The first two stages of drilling have yielded grades of up to 23.556 ppm of rare earth oxides. In 2024, the company acquired new areas that will allow it to expand the Colossus project.
Brazilian Rare Earths, an Australian company acting through the intermediary of Borborema Mineração, is planning a venture to produce rare earth oxide mineral concentrates at Ubaíra and Jiquiriçá, two adjoining municipalities in the state of Bahia, later adding a plant for the separation of rare earth oxides. The two stages of the project are budgeted at a total R$ 3.5 billion (approximately US$ 550 million). The first unit, to produce mineral concentrate of REOs, will require an investment of R$ 500 million (just over US$ 80 million) and is expected to start operating in 2028. The second stage, for the separation of REOs, will call for a much larger investment, forecast at R$ 3 billion (US$ 500 million). Startup is planned for 2034 with an initial output capacity of 15,000 tons per year, to be increased in stages, possibly to as much as 55,000 tons.
Another Australian company, Australian Mines, has identified a second prospective exploration target for niobium and rare earths at its Jequié project in the state of Bahia. The site potentially holds primary rare earth elements (REEs) in hard rock; alternatively, it could be a source of secondary REE oxides. The Jequié rare earths project comprises 72 areas of mining rights covering an aggregate 1,310 km2 (505 square miles).
Tiros Minerais Estratégicos, a subsidiary of the Canadian company Resouro Strategic Metals, has a project in Minas Gerais budgeted at up to R$ 500 million (just over US$ 80 million) for the extraction of rare earths and titanium in the municipality of Tiros. The venture is due to start operating in 2026. The company says its surveys have shown that the area holds approximately 1 billion tons of ore with significant levels of titanium oxide (12 percent) and magnetic rare earths (4,000 ppm). The main elements present in significant quantities are Neodymium, Praseodymium, Dysprosium, and Terbium.
Appia Rare Earths & Uranium Corp. is researching the Target IV ionic adsorption clay (IAC) deposit, part of its PCH project in the state of Goiás, where it has confirmed REE mineralization enabling the recovery of magnetic rare earth oxides (MREOs) and heavy rare earth oxides (HREOs). This may possibly rank as a world-class deposit, the company says.
Axel REE has four projects in Brazil, two of them in Minas Gerais (Caladão and Caldas) and the others at Itiquira in Mato Grosso and Corrente in Piauí. The two in Minas Gerais are the company's main investments; the Caldas project is located in Poços de Caldas, the same place where Meteoric Resources has its Caldeira project and Viridis has its Colossus project. In both areas Axel has estimates of resources with high levels of rare earths, including neodymium and praseodymium, the most sought-after magnetic elements for the manufacture of permanent magnets.
Enova Mining is conducting exploration work for rare earths in the states of Minas Gerais (the Coda project) and São Paulo (the Jiquiá project). In Minas Gerais, initial exploration work obtained "exceptional" results close to the surface, Enova reports, with an REE content of up to 5,158 ppm in one deposit and 5,042 ppm in another.
Brazilian Critical Minerals (BCM) has released the first Mineral Resource Estimate for its Ema and Ema East rare earth projects in the municipality of Apuí, in southeastern Amazonas. The deposit holds 1.02 billion tons of REEs with an REE content of 793 ppm. The Ema Project comprises 189 square kilometres (73 square miles) of felsic volcanic soil over which 194 boreholes were drilled, totaling 2,749 meters (over 9,000 feet).
Ironbark Zinc (IBG), having acquired the Perseverança package of lithium, niobium, and rare earth projects in northeastern Minas Gerais, is now drawing up an mineral exploration program to detail the full potential of the area. Perseverança consists of seven projects comprising 27 mining rights covering a total area of approximately 520 square kilometres (200 square miles) in and around the municipalities of Salinas and Araçuaí, in the region now known as the Lithium Valley.
OAR Resources Ltd., listed on the ASX, is planning to develop joint projects with Indústrias Nucleares do Brasil (INB) for mining both uranium and rare earths. The company sees the plan as giving it enhanced access to promising geological areas in Brazil.
PVW Resources is another Australian junior company that has now entered the race to mine rare earths in Brazil. It has signed a binding agreement to acquire Scanty Mineração Ltda., which owns assets considered "highly promising" in three states, São Paulo, Goiás, and Mato Grosso. Scanty holds 39 mining rights in 11 projects totaling 952 square kilometers. The main project is Capão Bonito, in the state of São Paulo.
Si6 Metals, now surveying lithium resources in the Lithium Valley area in Minas Gerais, is also committed to searching for rare earths under the terms of its joint venture with Foxfire Metals. Foxfire holds mining rights for rare earths in Goiás and Ceará, in addition to a gold project in Amazonas.
Equinox Resources is conducting mineral exploration work at its Mata da Corda project in Minas Gerais. "Significant potential for multi-commodity mineralization" is Equinox's summary of the findings so far. The latest results confirm substantial high-grade REE mineralization, along with "exceptional concentrations" of titanium dioxide (TiO2).
St. George Mining has acquired areas in Araxá, Minas Gerais, previously held by Itafós, and is developing a project for operating in the same carbonatite complex where CBMM is now producing an estimated 80 per cent of the worldwide niobium supply. The company says test drilling has confirmed that Araxá holds extensive surface-level high-grade niobium and rare earth mineralizations.
Brazil has been a major graphite producer for several decades and has the potential to achieve a substantial increase in output with the implementation of new projects, mainly in the state of Bahia.
South Star Battery Metals Corp., listed on the Toronto stock exchange, began commissioning the first stage of its graphite mine at Santa Cruz, Bahia, in October 2024 and is now moving towards commercial production. This will be the first new graphite mine anywhere in the Americas since
1996. In the first stage, the mine and processing plant will have an output capacity of 5,000 tons a year, increasing to 25,000 tons at the second stage. The investment budget for both stages together is US$ 35 million.
Appian Capital Brazil is investing approximately US$ 60 million in its subsidiary Graphcoa's projected graphite facility in the state of Bahia. The plant will process ore from the Boa Sorte mine, located in the municipality of Itagimirim, with an annual capacity of 5,500 tons. By the end of the first quarter of 2025 Appian expects to have submitted its graphite concentrate to selected customers, to assess the market potential and thus to guide a future decision on a possible expansion project, which might boost capacity to as much as 25,500 tons a year. The corresponding investment budget is estimated at US$ 250 million.
Although Brazil produces nickel only on a modest scale, mainly for use in electric vehicle batteries, a handful of projects have been reported that might help to bring about a change.
Atlantic Nickel, also controlled by Appian Capital Brazil, is currently the only commercial-scale producer of nickel sulfide in Brazil, with facilities located in Itagibá in the state of Bahia. Its current installed capacity is 112,000 tons of concentrate per year, equivalent to approximately 15,000 tons of metal. The company is studying the possible development of an underground mine at the site, which would add 27 years to the useful lifetime of the venture.
Brazilian Nickel has a project in the state of Piauí where it plans to produce nickel and cobalt from laterite ore, through a leaching process. For the time being, the unit is operating on a pilot scale to test the process and the product with a view to large-scale production. Brazilian Nickel is negotiating financing for the project. A feasibility study, completed in 2022, allows for a mine with a 33-year useful lifetime. The ore will be processed on site to recover nickel and cobalt in the form of a mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP) with an average annual output of 25,000 tons. The company expects to conclude the financing arrangements by the end of 2025, enabling the venture to operate on an industrial scale from 2028 onward.
Centaurus Metals, listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, expects to make a decision, before the end of 2025, on whether to go ahead with its Jaguar project, said to be one of the world's largest undeveloped nickel sulphide projects. Located in the Carajás region in the state of Pará, the Jaguar nickel sulphide deposit holds resources of 109.2 million tons having a 0.87 percent nickel content, equivalent to 948,900 tons of metal. A feasibility study concluded in 2024, considering only open-pit nickel sulphide ore to be mined over an initial 18-year useful lifetime, includes a conventional nickel flotation plant with a planned capacity of 3.5 million tons of ore per year. The C1 operating cost would be US$ 2.30 per pound with an AISC, based on the nickel content, of US$ 3.57 per pound. The preproduction capex (including growth and contingency) is stated as US$ 371 million and pre-production (pre-mine stripping) as US$ 68 million.
Niobium, of which Brazil produces a dominant world share, has been added to the list of minerals for the energy transition, for two main reasons: it is important for making lighter and tougher steels of the kind needed, for example, in wind turbines; and niobium oxide has been introduced in the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles.
CBMM has opened the world's first volume manufacturing facility dedicated to the production of Echion Technologies' proprietary XNO ultra-fast charging active anode material technology. Located in Araxá, Minas Gerais, the new facility is the world's largest niobium-based anode producer, with an annual output capacity of 2,000 tons of XNO, equivalent to 1 GWh of lithium-ion cells. CBMM has set itself a target of achieving 30 percent of its revenue from non-steel products by 2030. To achieve this aim, the company is investing, each year, R$ 250 million (over US$ 40 million) in its technology program. CBMM's strategic growth plan envisages an output capacity of 20,000 tons a year of battery-grade niobium oxide, to be reached by 2030.
As well as rare earths (see above), St. George Mining also intends to produce niobium in Araxá, Minas Gerais, in areas close to CBMM's venture. It raised US$ 20 million in a bond placement in Australia to finance the start of the project. The company has signed a trade agreement with Chinese steelmaker Fangda, under an offtake and project finance model, granting Fangda the exclusive right to purchase 20 percent of the niobium products for a period of five years.