Niobium and Graphene: Brazil and Japan Sign Cooperation Agreement to Explore Production and Use of Minerals

Cooperation Agreement Between Brazil and Japan Related to the Production and Use of Niobium and Graphene Resulting from Negotiations Begun by President Jair Bolsonaro

On the morning of last Friday, January 8, 2021, the President of the Republic, Jair Bolsonaro, met at the Palácio do Planalto in Brasília with Motegi Toshimitsu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, to discuss matters related to the Production and Use of Niobium and Graphene. Luxury car from British manufacturer BAC will contain niobium supplied by Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Mineração (CBMM)

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Also on Friday, Brazil and Japan signed a Memorandum of Cooperation in the Field of Technologies Related to the Production and Use of Minerals and to provide more structured cooperation in the future, including potential joint projects.

“The objective of the bilateral document is to deepen mutual understanding to explore cooperation in the value chain of products that use niobium or graphene and to provide more structured cooperation in the future, including potential joint projects,” emphasizes the Ministry of Foreign Relations in a statement.

The initiative is the result of negotiations begun by President Bolsonaro, who in 2019 expressed interest in cooperation to then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during the World Economic Forum in Davos, and of a meeting between the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovations, Marcos Pontes, and the Japanese Ambassador to Brazil, Akira Yamada, also in 2019.

During the ceremony, cooperation agreements were also established between the two countries in the areas of biodiversity, development of sensors, and precision agriculture platforms to support Brazilian sustainable agriculture and the use of advanced synthetic aperture radar technologies and artificial intelligence to combat illegal deforestation.

Graphene and Niobium: Strategic Minerals for Brazil and Japan

Since the second half of 2016, when Brazil and Japan signed a Memorandum of Cooperation for the Promotion of Investments and Economic Cooperation in the Infrastructure Sector, interest in expanding Japanese investment in Brazil has been growing, including in rare or strategic minerals such as graphene and niobium.

In July of last year, a public call was launched to support technological enterprises based on graphene, allocating approximately R$ 1.5 million to support applied research proposals, technological development, and innovation aimed at generating enterprises and technological solutions, focusing primarily on graphene.

Niobium, a strategic mineral for Brazil, in which the country is the largest global producer and responsible for approximately 86% of production, currently counts Japan as one of the main importers of ferroniobium alloy (9.6% of exports from Brazil).