Brazil’s Senate Puts Critical Minerals Bill on Fast Track With Braga as Rapporteur

BRAZIL · ECONOMY

Brazil’s Senate is preparing to vote on the critical minerals bill, with Senator Eduardo Braga of Amazonas as rapporteur and about R$7 billion (US$1.36 billion) of public support on the table. A parallel decision this week cut the cost of state-backed credit for the sector to 3 percent a year.

What moved this week

We reported on 27 August that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was pressing the Senate to act. The Senate has now answered, and quickly.

Senate president Davi Alcolumbre named Eduardo Braga, leader of the MDB party in the Senate, as rapporteur of the minerals bill. The choice came on Wednesday 26 August, right after Alcolumbre met Lula and Chamber speaker Hugo Motta.

The bill is PL 2780/2024, approved by the Chamber of Deputies in May. It has waited in the Senate for almost four months.

Alcolumbre has committed to a floor vote next week, during a concentrated voting effort. One option is to send the text straight to the floor under an urgency regime, skipping committees.

Braga had already signalled the bill was a priority. He announced earlier that his party had chosen it among the priority matters to approve this year.

Braga and Alcolumbre meet on Monday 31 August to define the procedure. Negotiations over the text are expected to concentrate directly in the plenary.

The R$7 billion on the table

The public support inside the bill adds up to about R$7 billion (US$1.36 billion). It comes in two very different instruments.

The first is the Fundo Garantidor da Atividade Mineral, a guarantee fund with R$2 billion (US$388 million) of federal money. Private quotas could take it to R$5 billion (US$971 million).

The fund does not lend. It guarantees loans made by others, which lowers the perceived risk and the cost of financing for smaller mining companies.

The second instrument is a tax credit programme worth up to R$5 billion (US$971 million). It rewards companies that process and transform these minerals inside Brazil.

The bill also gives priority to promising areas in National Mining Agency auctions. Mineral research authorisations get a maximum, non-renewable term of ten years.

Here is the fine print. Those credits are scheduled between 2030 and 2034, and only companies headquartered and managed in Brazil qualify.

Two texts, one fight

Braga will not start from a blank page. The Senate has its own bill, PL 4443/2025, presented by Senator Renan Calheiros.

Both texts create a national policy and a council to coordinate the sector. The differences sit in two sensitive points.

The Chamber text lets the council screen and block deals involving strategic assets. It also opens the door to an export tax on those minerals, or an equivalent mechanism.

The Senate text avoids both devices. Government officials fear senators will dilute the council’s powers, which would force the bill back to the Chamber.

In the Chamber, rapporteur Arnaldo Jardim defended the tougher version. Brazil cannot remain a mere exporter of raw minerals, he said, and must industrialise its geological wealth.

The Amazonas window

The rapporteur’s home state is part of the story. Braga is a former governor of Amazonas and one of its three senators.

Amazonas holds one of Brazil’s most strategic mineral projects, the Autazes potash mine. Potash is the core ingredient of potassium fertiliser.

Brazil imports about 95 percent of the potash it consumes. The Autazes project, with planned output of 2.2 million tonnes a year, could cut that dependence by about a fifth.

A rapporteur from Amazonas gives such projects a direct channel in the final text. The state government has treated mineral development as a priority for years.

Cheaper credit arrives before the law

The executive branch did not wait for the Senate. On Thursday 27 August the National Monetary Council cut the cost of credit for the sector.

Loans from the Plano Brasil Soberano for investments in the sector now cost 3 percent a year. The previous rates were 8 percent and 6.5 percent, depending on the purpose.

Brasil Soberano is the programme Brazil created in 2025 to support companies hit by United States tariffs. The council also opened its working-capital lines to the fertiliser chain.

That inclusion covers fertiliser makers, producers of fertiliser inputs and miners of minerals used in fertilisers. Potash projects like Autazes fit exactly there.

The deadline to file financing requests at the BNDES, the national development bank, was extended by twelve months. Applications now run until 31 December 2027.

The Finance Ministry said the changes widen support for sectors hit by higher American tariffs. It also cited other effects of international instability.

What to watch next week

The first signpost is the Monday meeting between Braga and Alcolumbre. It will show whether the bill skips committees entirely.

The second is the fate of the council’s veto power and the export instruments. If senators strip them, the text returns to the Chamber and the calendar slips.

The third is the list itself. The new council will define which minerals count as critical or strategic, and every state with a deposit will lobby for inclusion.

The names expected on it include lithium, cobalt, niobium and graphite. Rare earths get the most attention, and Brazil holds the world’s second-largest reserves, behind only China.

Those elements go into magnets, electric motors, wind turbines and military equipment. That is why Washington and Beijing watch this vote as closely as Brasília does.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources: CNN Brasil and Metrópoles on the rapporteur choice and the vote calendar; Valor Econômico on the National Monetary Council decision of 27 August 2026; Agência iNFRA; Senate and Chamber records on PL 2780/2024 and PL 4443/2025.

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