Brazil cannot be a "mineral colony" of the USA.

Given the speculation that Brazil might negotiate the supply of critical minerals to the US to overcome the absurd trade/political sanctions imposed on our country, it is necessary to inform that the Lula government is working on a National Policy for Critical Minerals, which should be released later this year.

This policy is based on the assumption that these minerals (lithium, niobium, cobalt, rare earths, etc.) are absolutely strategic for developing the "industry of the future" (electric vehicles, batteries, chips, semiconductors, new turbines, new metal alloys, magnets, radars, drones, new satellites, etc.).

The development of so-called "artificial intelligence," for example, depends on the availability and processing of these minerals.

Brazil wants to develop new "green" industries based on these products. These minerals are vital for the so-called "neo-industrialization," in which Brazil is strongly committed.

Therefore, a sovereign strategic management of these precious and future-defining resources is necessary, which will be defined in the National Policy on Critical Minerals.

Everyone knows this. At the last G7 meeting, it was highlighted that these critical minerals are vital to "national security".

The US, for example, uses rare earth elements to manufacture cutting-edge weaponry, such as the F-35 fighter jet, drones, and submarines, among other strategic military platforms.

It is worth noting that Brazil has the second largest reserve of these minerals in the world, surpassed only by China.

Obviously, Brazil cannot relive its colonial past, exporting only raw ore and importing ready-made technology at a high price.

Exporting our reserves of these minerals, which haven't even been fully mapped yet, without processing and using them to develop our own industry, would be a crime.

And it's not just the government that's engaged in this strategic effort. The Senate is already analyzing the timely bill by Senator Rogério Carvalho, from the PT party of Sergipe, which mandates the processing of rare earth minerals within the national territory.

Trump succeeded in getting China to ease its restrictions on rare earth exports to the US. But this didn't come for free. The US had to revise its restrictions on shipping chips to China and allow the massive presence of Chinese students in the US, among other things.

Furthermore, the Chinese maintained restrictions on exports destined for the US defense industry.

Furthermore, it should be considered that China typically processes these minerals before exporting them. This is evidenced by the fact that the eased restrictions also applied to magnets and other magnetic materials that had already been processed.

However, we suspect that Trump wants to treat Brazil the way he treated Ukraine or the way he intends to treat Greenland/Denmark.

Trump's intention is probably for Brazil to relinquish strategic management of these reserves and open these resources to free exploitation by US companies.

If that's the case, it would be a new attack on our sovereignty, very similar to the one already committed with the threat of absurd 50% trade sanctions, carried out for sordid political motives and clear geopolitical reasons.

Brazil will not be anyone's mineral colony.