Highlights
- Australian mining companies Viridis and Meteoric are investing nearly $300 million in rare earth exploration projects in Minas Gerais, Brazil.
- Brazil possesses 23% of global rare earth reserves, with state officials envisioning multi-billion dollar processing facilities to challenge Chinese market dominance.
- Despite promising geological potential, rare earth projects face significant hurdles including:
- Environmental reviews
- Infrastructure challenges
- Complex financing requirements
A BNamericas piece today rightly captures a growing trend: Minas Gerais, long synonymous with iron ore, now wants to add rare earths to its portfolio as Rare Earth Exchanges (REEx) has chronicled. The state has indeed attracted attention from Australian juniors such as Viridis Mining (opens in a new tab) (Colossus Project, Poços de Caldas) and Meteoric Resources (opens in a new tab) (Caldeira Project), each pledging nearly US$300 million in investment. Both are in exploration and early development phases, making it accurate but premature to talk of production “in the coming months.” At best, pilot or pre-operational activities might emerge in the near term.
Emerging REE Complex?
Ambitions Larger Than Ore
Vice-Governor Mateus Simões’ (opens in a new tab) vision—positioning Minas as not just an extraction center but a rare earth processing hub—reflects both ambition and necessity. He cites plants costing upwards of US$2 billion, which is in line with known global estimates for integrated separation and refining facilities. Brazil’s reserves, officially pegged at 21 million tons (about 23% of the world’s total), support his rhetoric. Yet translating reserves into refined oxides or magnets requires massive infrastructure, technology transfer, and environmental licensing—none of which are trivial.
Where Optimism Outpaces Reality
Talk of Minas Gerais as the “true breadbasket” of rare earths for Brazil veers into boosterism. While geologically plausible, the projects are still early-stage, facing hurdles familiar to any critical minerals venture: environmental review, community engagement, infrastructure bottlenecks, and financing beyond initial capex announcements. Moreover, global investors have seen similar “next REE hub” stories in Africa, Greenland, and elsewhere that have taken decades—or stalled.
The Supply Chain Stakes
What’s notable here is Minas Gerais openly linking its REE strategy to downstream processing and industrial development. If the state can deliver even part of this plan, Brazil could emerge as a counterweight to Chinese dominance, aligning with U.S. and EU ambitions for diversified supply. The inclusion of Codemge (opens in a new tab) (a state-owned mining company) in the mix suggests that the government is willing to deploy public land and capital to entice private investors—a model not unlike China’s own.
However, as REEx has reported in the past, does the state have the available capital to achieve such aspirations?
The Rare Earth Exchanges Take
The reporting is factually sound on reserves, project names, and investment figures, though timelines are presented with too much certainty. The vice-governor’s sweeping rhetoric introduces bias toward inevitability, and as we have investigated, will the state make the necessary capital available? Investors should temper the optimism: these projects, while promising, remain unproven and face the same high barriers that have hampered rare earth ventures worldwide. Still, Minas Gerais’ entry into the conversation matters—the state’s geology, political will, and scale position it as one of the more credible non-Chinese contenders in the long game of rare earth supply security.
Source: BNamericas (opens in a new tab), September 24, 2025
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Lots of numbers thrown around. Still waiting to see to whom the Brazilian strategic money promised for within borders metals sector development will be apportioned. Meteoric has a former Biden Admin $mills LOI but will the Trump Admin follow through? In fact, the question we have been asking since his arrival is how will the tension between the present Brazilian and US Admin’s impact (if at all) moves by the US towards the Brazilian RE sector? The recent Bolsonaro legal verdict can’t have helped. GLTA – REI