Brazil’s Lower House Approves Critical Minerals Policy, Sending Bill to Senate

Overview

• Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies, which passed the text in a symbolic vote on Wednesday, advanced PL 2,780/24 to the Senate to set a national policy for critical and strategic minerals.
• The plan offers progressive tax credits up to 20% for projects that process minerals in Brazil with a R$1 billion yearly cap from 2030 to 2034, and it aims to curb raw‑ore exports by rewarding higher value‑add.
• The bill creates the Mineral Activity Guarantee Fund with Union capital up to R$2 billion and total capacity up to R$5 billion to back credit for mines and processing plants.
• A new council would define the mineral list, rank priority projects, and homologate corporate deals or cross‑border agreements that pose economic or geopolitical risks after the relator softened the wording from prior consent to homologation.
• Companies must invest a share of gross revenue in R&D and obtain free, prior and informed consent from affected Indigenous and traditional peoples, while critics warn the broad “strategic” label could steer public support toward iron ore instead of rare‑earth industrialization; the vote came on the eve of Lula’s meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.