🧲 Can Brazil join the race for rare earths?

RARE EARTH MINERALS

Brazil wants to join the rare earths race. But can it?

As trade tensions between the United States and China broaden to include rare earths — a group of 17 minerals crucial for advanced weaponry, electric vehicles, wind turbines and robotics — new attention is turning to potential alternatives to China’s near-monopoly in the sector.

Among the contenders is Brazil, which holds one of the world’s largest reserves of rare earths, according to the US Geological Survey. New projects led by Brazilian authorities and private firms are advancing, but the sector remains in its infancy.

The term “rare earths” is somewhat misleading. These elements are not scarce in the Earth’s crust; they are often byproducts of other mining activities. But extracting them in their most valuable forms is difficult, costly and environmentally harmful…

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