The story thus far: India and Brazil signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on uncommon earths and demanding minerals throughout President Lula da Silva’s state go to to India on February 21, 2026. The joint assertion stated the 2 international locations need to work collectively throughout the total mineral “worth chain” and that the understanding consists of exploration, mining, processing, recycling, and refining. The assertion additionally stated the goal is to strengthen provide chains and competitiveness.
What’s India doing about important minerals?
India is presently making an attempt to construct capability at residence throughout the important minerals worth chain and to cut back dependence on anybody nation by constructing extra abroad partnerships for minerals and processing. On the home entrance, the Union Cupboard accredited the Nationwide Essential Mineral Mission in January 2025 to cowl all phases of the worth chain, together with exploration, mining, beneficiation, processing, and restoration from end-of-life merchandise. It’s meant to run from 2024-25 to 2030-31 with substantial public expenditure.
India additionally revealed a listing of 30 important minerals in July 2023 and has used the Mines and Minerals (Improvement and Regulation) Modification Act 2023 to provide the Centre extra energy to public sale blocks for important and strategic minerals. By September 2025, the Ministry of Mines stated it had run a number of rounds of such auctions masking a number of blocks. Additional, the state-backed automobile Khanij Bidesh India Ltd. is presently exploring abroad acquisitions and signing exploration preparations, together with in Argentina and Chile.
India has additionally used adjustments in customs responsibility to cut back the price of importing inputs that it doesn’t have sufficient of at residence. This consists of customs responsibility cuts in latest budgets for some important minerals and for scrap and waste that may be processed to get well these minerals.
Lastly, the Indian authorities can be pushing late-stage manufacturing. In line with Union Minister for Mines G. Kishan Reddy, India goals to start home manufacturing of rare-earth everlasting magnets by the top of 2026 underneath a government-backed programme, with the acknowledged objective of slicing import dependence in sectors like electrical automobiles and defence.
What does the MoU imply for India?
In India’s official briefing, Secretary (East) P. Kumaran stated President Lula spoke of Brazil’s “substantial” reserves of which solely about 30% had been explored and that Brazil would worth India as a accomplice to discover and course of them. Related Press reported that the MoU is non-binding.
Amongst different issues, the settlement will enhance India’s bargaining energy. If India had just one or two life like sources of those supplies, sellers would know India can’t stroll away from their phrases even when they had been exorbitant. Now, nevertheless, India can say “we will supply from Brazil”, which can have an effect on sellers’ incentives.
The MoU additionally indicators to corporations that their inputs received’t be disrupted by export controls or geopolitical shocks, encouraging them to speculate extra. Likewise if India and Brazil get on the identical web page vis-à-vis environmental and different requirements, India can extra simply promote completed merchandise into markets that more and more demand proof about the place supplies had been sourced from.
Does the MoU intersect with Pax Silica?
Pax Silica is a U.S.-led initiative that brings collectively accomplice international locations; India joined it on February 20. It’s meant to make the “silicon stack” — the system that begins with uncooked supplies and runs via factories and gear, all the best way to trendy computing, together with information centres and AI {hardware} — safer.
Plainly talking, Pax Silica units out a common objective within the type of securing provide chains for the U.S. and its accomplice international locations. The bilateral MoU, signed the following day, might assist with one a part of that objective, which is to entry, and presumably course of, sure minerals.
The MoU doesn’t make Brazil a Pax Silica member, nevertheless, nor will actions underneath the MoU be run as a part of Pax Silica tasks.
What’s going to the MoU do for Brazil?
In line with the U.S. Geological Survey, Brazil has 21 million tonnes of rare-earth-oxide equal, 2.7 billion tonnes of bauxite, 270 million tonnes of manganese, and 0.4 million tonnes of lithium. From Brazil’s viewpoint, the MoU might be a strategy to flip this mineral wealth into extra worth for its trade.
Particularly, it might assist Brazil appeal to Indian capital and patrons into Brazilian tasks, which may make new mines and processing vegetation simpler to finance. It additionally offers Brazil a big, rising market that may signal long-term buy contracts in order that tasks should not constructed on hypothesis.
The MoU covers exploration, mining, processing, recycling, and refining, all of which additionally go well with Brazil’s objective to maneuver up the worth chain slightly than simply discover uncooked ores, and also will strengthen Brazil’s negotiating place as properly.
Revealed – February 25, 2026 06:00 am IST