🪨 Brazil has reserves, not regulators

Jozef Síkela, the European Commissioner for International Partnerships, lands in Brazil next week to talk critical minerals, planning stops in Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasília, and capping his trip with a Saturday visit to a rare-earth project in the city of Poços de Caldas (Minas). 

The EU is only the latest foreign power to court Brazil for a share of its rare earths — materials vital to advanced weaponry, electric vehicles, wind turbines and robotics — in a bid to loosen China's grip on the sector.

As rare earths reshape the global balance of power, Brazil sits on what are estimated to be the world's second-largest reserves — which could deliver both money and leverage. But there is one major problem. The agency that would police that boom says it can barely function…

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