Brazil and the Chinese business deal.
Brazil, with large reserves – among other minerals from which these raw materials are extracted – of niobium and monazite sands, is already discussing, along with the new mining framework, a National Policy on Strategic Minerals and Rare Earths.
Since the beginning of time, tangible and intangible elements, such as raw materials, intelligence, and knowledge, have determined competition between states and the rise and fall of empires and civilizations.
Canada's spying on computers belonging to the Ministry of Mines and Energy, and the proposal that the European Union intends to make to Brazil next week regarding "strategic raw materials," serve as a warning to those who believe that the advent of new technologies will bury or diminish the importance of commodities and raw materials in the international geopolitical chessboard in the coming years.
According to what the Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship, Antonio Tajani, declared in an interview with “Valor” yesterday, Europe intends to propose an alliance to Brazil to prevent China from continuing to try to “monopoly industrial raw materials” on a planetary scale.
Behind the euphemism lies European interest in a veritable "Chinese deal"—which is currently under Beijing's control.
An alternative way to access rare earth elements, a set of minerals essential for technological advancement in strategic sectors such as magnets, high-performance batteries, magnetic levitation, optics, wind energy, lasers, computing, diagnostic imaging, hybrid and electric vehicles, aviation, space, etc.
The world's most populous country, the planet's second-largest economy, and the world's largest producer – around 90% – of rare earth elements, China, with its strict policy on the commercialization of these minerals, aims for three things: to add value to its production by processing and transforming it into finished products within its own territory; to control its supply in international markets in order to obtain fairer prices; and to prevent the formation of strategic stockpiles abroad – rare earth elements are of great importance for the defense sector, for example – by its biggest competitors.
The major problem for NATO countries, from a geopolitical standpoint, is that the availability of rare earth elements is currently concentrated in countries like China, India, South Africa, and Brazil. All of these are BRICS nations, and it is crucial for them to prevent an alliance from forming between them.
Brazil, with large reserves – among other minerals from which these raw materials are extracted – of niobium and monazite sands, is already discussing, along with the new mining framework, a National Policy for Strategic Minerals and Rare Earths.
It is in this strategic and geopolitical sense that any European proposal must be evaluated.
Anyone who wants access to our reserves should partner with Brazil to process them and add value here, through technology transfer.
It costs nothing to listen to what Europeans have to say. But it's also necessary to talk to others. Starting – after the EU – with the BRICS, naturally.