Hosting a state visit in March by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (left), Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva proposed bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the development of critical-minerals resources. (Photo by Ricardo Stuckert)
On paper, Brazil is sitting pretty when it comes to rare earths. That’s because it is home to the second biggest deposits of the 17 highly sought-after metallic elements, which are key ingredients in high-tech consumer products ranging from cell phones and hard drives to televisions and hybrid vehicles. But Brazil lacks the supply chain needed to extract rare earths, refine them and bring them to world markets. As a result, the country accounts for less than 1% of world production. The government aims to change this state of affairs. Aside from spurring hopes for major economic returns, its efforts will likely raise serious environmental concerns, too, given the highly destructive and pollution-prone nature of rare-earths extraction and processing. No small reason the industry has been slow to develop outside China, the world’s leading producer, is that it involves severe ecosystem destruction due to the stripping... [Log in to read more]
