Brazil’s red tape is ‘cooling’ investment, mining group says

The growing global demand for critical minerals could be a boon for Brazil, but the strict licensing process is holding back development, says the country’s former environmental chief who now heads its largest mining industry group.

The seven-to-eight-year wait to obtain licenses for mineral projects ends up “cooling” interest in investments, Raul Jungmann, the chief executive officer of Ibram, said at the Brazilian Development Bank’s strategic minerals conference Monday in Rio da Janeiro.

Big miners are expected to invest $68.4 billion in Brazil between 2025-2029, a figure that could be higher if the permitting process were streamlined, Jungmann said, the former head of the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources. Other countries take half to one-third of the time Brazil does to approve licenses, he added.

Brazil holds the world’s largest niobium reserves, the second-largest graphite reserves and the third-largest reserves of rare earth elements and nickel. The country also is a top iron ore producer and home of Vale SA.

To be sure, Brazil is known to have independent regulators with stricter environmental and safety standards than other regions. And miners aren’t the only commodity producers growing uneasy with regulations.

Brazil’s state-controlled oil producer Petrobras has been waiting since 2020 to get approval start drilling at Foz do Amazonas basin, which it expects to be a new key offshore frontier. Chief executive officer Magda Chambriard said last month Petrobras has been facing more difficulties with Ibama than with the oil and gas regulator, which recently shut off one of Petrobras’s production vessels.

(By Mariana Durao)