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Current Affairs

US critical minerals proposals to Brazil go unanswered as China looms

Brazil has not answered two American proposals to formalise cooperation on critical minerals, a senior US diplomat said at Latin America’s largest mining fair, leaving…

By Samantha Johnson / August 26, 2026

Brazil has not answered two American proposals to formalise cooperation on critical minerals, a senior US diplomat said at Latin America’s largest mining fair, leaving Washington without a bilateral deal as it races to build rare earth supply chains outside China.

Matthew Lowe, economic counsellor at the US embassy in Brasilia, said Washington invited Brazil years ago to join the Minerals Security Partnership, a US-led grouping that coordinates investment in mineral supply chains, but never received a response.

A draft framework agreement sent in February also went unanswered.

“We’ll probably have to wait till the election, no matter what happens,” Lowe told the audience in Belo Horizonte on Tuesday, referring to Brazil’s presidential vote in October.

Lowe was speaking at Exposibram, the conference run by the Brazilian Mining Institute, alongside officials from France, Canada, Australia and Britain, most of whose governments have signed the kind of agreement Washington cannot get from Brasilia.

The five spent the session describing how they intend to loosen China’s grip on mineral processing without once naming China.

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