President Lula sets conditions for foreign investors.
Only around 30 percent of Brazil’s natural resources, including critical minerals, have been developed so far, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
. Yet Brazil’s deposits of rare earth elements in particular are attracting global interest, as many countries see them as an opportunity to reduce their dependence on China, the dominant force in the sector.
Lula, however, made it clear as early as this summer that Brazil intends to retain full sovereignty over its mineral resources: they belong to the Brazilian people, he stressed, and Brazilians must also benefit from their extraction. At the start of this week, he reaffirmed this stance. Speaking at an economic forum in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, Lula emphasized that foreign investors would need to participate in expanding local industrial value chains, thereby generating added value within the country.
He also urged other resource-rich nations to establish clear frameworks for developing their natural assets. Several countries, including Gabon, India, Namibia, and Indonesia, have already announced plans to ban the export of unprocessed raw materials. Their goal is to attract foreign investment to build domestic processing capacity and develop technological expertise.
Featured image: via Canva