US admits defeat in China minerals race. Can Brazil turn panic into processing power?

Brazilian Mines and Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira revealed that US President Donald Trump and his team conceded during White House talks in May that the United States had lost the critical minerals race to China.

The minister made the disclosure in an unscripted speech on Monday to Exposibram, the industry conference run by the Brazilian Mining Institute, in the state of Minas Gerais, responsible for more than 40 per cent of national mineral output.

But as the US pours billions of dollars into Brazilian mines, the government insists the country will not remain a mere exporter of raw ore.

“I spent an hour with President Trump and his team, the vice-president, some ministers, and I heard that they lost the race to China on electrification, on the separation of minerals, on the defence industry,” Silveira said in the speech, in which he defended the government’s push to bring foreign capital into mineral processing on Brazilian soil.

The minister was part of the delegation that accompanied Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to Washington on May 7, the leader’s first visit since Trump returned to office.

The two sides met in the Oval Office and then over an extended working lunch, covering trade, tariffs, organised crime and critical minerals in a session that ran more than an hour past schedule.

Brazil holds the second-largest rare earth reserves in the world and has one operating rare earth mine, while China controls about 91 per cent of global rare earth separation and refining and 94 per cent of permanent magnet production, according to the International Energy Agency.