Cooperation agreement between Brazil and Japan related to the production and use of Niobium and Graphene is the result of negotiations initiated by President Jair Bolsonaro

On the morning of last Friday, January 8, 2021, the President of the Republic, Jair Bolsonaro, met at the Planalto Palace, 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 have niobium supplied by Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Mineração (CBMM) in its composition.

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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 a 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 a more structured cooperation in the future, including potential joint projects”, highlights the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a note.

The initiative is the result of negotiations initiated by President Bolsonaro, who in 2019 expressed interest in cooperation to the then Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, during the Davos Economic Forum, 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 signed between the two countries in the areas of biodiversity, development of sensors and a precision agriculture platform in support of sustainable Brazilian agriculture and the use of advanced synthetic aperture radar technologies and the use of artificial intelligence to combat illegal deforestation.

Graphene and Niobo: strategic minerals for Brazil and Japan

Since the last 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 has been growing in expanding Japanese investment in Brazil, including rare or strategic minerals, such as graphene and niobium.

In July of last year, the public call to support graphene-based technological ventures began, allocating approximately R$ 1,5 million to support proposals for applied research, technological development and innovation aimed at generating technology-based ventures and solutions, with graphene as its main object.

Niobium, a strategic mineral for Brazil, in which the country is the world's largest producer and responsible for approximately 86% of production, currently has Japan as one of the main importers of the ferroniobium alloy (9,6% of exports from Brazil).