China reserved all its content

It happened in October, but it went unnoticed by the general public so far: United States He enhanced his investment In Brazil mines capable of dealing with the supply of rare earth and critical minerals that dominates with iron fist Asia. At that time, Trump was only a presidency candidate, and global trade, and that of China and the United States in particular, followed the monotony of those days. What happened a few months later We already knowand when Washington has gone to “her” Mina in Brazil, he has encountered a surprise.

Context: A unique mine. The Green Serra Minelocated in the Brazilian state of Goiás, it is currently the only active producer Out of China that extracts heavy strange earth from ionic clay, a easier type of deposit to process than the hard rock, since it does not require crushing. These minerals, essential for The manufacture of magnets permanent used in electric vehicles and wind turbines, have turned this mine into a key piece within the MSP strategy led by the United States.

With the beginning of commercial production and the announcement in October of a round of US financing by 150 million dollarswith contributions from Denham Capital, Energy and Minerals Group and Vision Blue, Serra Green began to position himself as a crucial actor in the race for reduce dependence Western China. Its executive director, Moraitis thras, He then stressed that these funds would allow the company to reach a scale to compete economically in a market distorted by low Chinese production costs.

But there was a problem.

The paradox and the Chinese domain. After the months of that operation, in the heart of the Brazilian municipality of Minaçu, an old region Asbestos Minera In the center of the country, a huge pit that contains has already been opened, According to expertsthat possible solution to the urgent problem facing the West: access to heavy rare earths, the essential strategic minerals to manufacture all kinds of critical technologies.

As we said at the beginning, the green serra mine, mostly backed with US capital (and to a lesser extent), it is currently the unique out of Asia which produces significant amounts of some of the rare earths most difficult to obtain. However, the geopolitical potential of this operation has been immediately tied to a paradox Structural: All its production is already contractually compromised … To Chinathe only country that has the technical and industrial capacity to separate and process the elements heavy extracted from that clay soil.

The Beijing Monopoly. The case of Serra Verde is not an anomaly, but the reflection of carefully cultivated hegemony. China dominates not only extraction, but especially processing Of the 17 known rare earths, essential for automotive, aerospace, electronic and military industries. Although these elements abound in the earth’s crust, their separation is technical and economically complex, and for decades West relegated That task to China.

In the particular case of heavy rare earths, which include elements Like Disposio and TerbioChina practically has the global monopoly of separation and refinement. The situation is such that, even when Western countries discover viable deposits, such as Serra Verde in Brazil, They lack infrastructure and industrial knowledge to process them. China, thanks to long -term planning, is now in an unsurpassed position, even in the middle of the growing commercial tensions. Its agreement with almost any mine comes long because it is a fundamental part of the process of exploitation of these lands.

A critical block. Interest in Brazil as an alternative provider is not new, but urgent. Since in 2010 China interrupted its exports From rare earth to Japan for a territorial dispute, the world has become aware of its vulnerability in this area. As we said, Denham CapitalBoston -based private investment firm, was one of the first to bet on Brazil that same year, when financing the Serra Verde Project.

However, for the next eight years, the project had difficulty taking off due to a fundamental lack: outside China, No one could really refine the materials that the mine would extract. Thus, at the time he finally managed to inaugurate, after fourteen years of work and that additional investment of 150 million dollars In October, the paradoxically the mine had already sold its production to China Up to at least 2027. Its executive director, Moraitis thras, admitted thatalthough now everyone wants their minerals, they cannot do anything: the contracts are signed and the materials already have a destination insured.

Long -term response. In addition, Serra Verde is not the only example of this unit. MP Materialsanother company backed by the US government, extracts and separates light rare earth in California, but, again, until recently it sold 80% of its production to China, since it could not process the heavy elements. Had the New York Times that a plant is currently being built in the same state, Financed by the Pentagonone that in the future can perform this task, as well as Other projects In progress in France and Estonia.

However, all these initiatives will take years to materialize. Even if they are completed according to the planned deadlines, access to new heavy rare land deposits will continue to be very limited. Serra Green itself hopes to produce just some Hundreds of tons Of these critical minerals for 2027, which, if specified, would double the offer outside Asia. The rest of the international supply currently comes from marginal sources, such as by -products of the coal and uraniumwhich, once again, underlines the urgency of the problem.

Strategic advantage. Thus, China’s consolidation as indisputable power In this sector it does not seem fruit of chance, but of a sustained industrial vision for decades. While the United States and its allies just begin to react to The severity of the matterBeijing has built not only technical capacity, but also Supply chain and the contractual links that guarantee control.

Moraitis counted In the Times That there is nothing more to recognize the obvious: the strategic planning of the Asian nation has been remarkably effective, and compete against it will be tremendously difficult. Meanwhile, the rare earths that could support the technological autonomy of the West continue their way to the thisreinforcing a dependency that becomes more difficult to reverse with each ton extracted from the Brazilian soil … paid in dollars.

Image | Green Serra

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