Brazil's SGB Plans to Team Up with Vale and Petrobras to Accelerate Critical Mineral Geological Exploration

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 28, the Geological Survey of Brazil (SGB) said it is seeking to establish new partnerships with companies such as Vale and Petrobras to accelerate national geological mapping and critical mineral exploration. Valdir Silveira, SGB's Director of Geology and Mineral Resources, said while presenting the new ten-year geophysics plan PlanGeo and launching the related public consultation that the focus of geological survey work over the next four years will be on identifying critical and strategic mineral resources.

Under SGB's current budget assumptions, approximately 300 million reais in federal budget is planned for related surveys in 2027, with cumulative investment potentially reaching about 1.2 billion reais by 2030. SGB hopes to expand the coverage of airborne geophysics, geochemical surveys, and regional geological surveys by bringing in funding from major mining and energy companies, thereby shortening the data acquisition cycle for key metallogenic areas.

SGB has already been advancing specialized surveys in several critical mineral regions. In August this year, SGB, in cooperation with the Inter-American Development Bank, launched procurement related to Brazil's critical mineral geological mapping project, planning to conduct exploration geochemical surveys in the Jequié block in Bahia state and the Eastern Brazilian Pegmatite Province in Minas Gerais state, with a combined budget of approximately US$200,000 for the two efforts. The project is supported by grant funding from a Japanese special fund.

Rare earths are also one of the current key focuses. This year, SGB has continued to advance rare earth potential surveys in São Paulo state, Paraná state, and the surrounding Ribeira tectonic belt, with field work covering multiple areas with favorable conditions for rare earth mineralization. SGB's "2026 Overview of Brazil's Critical and Strategic Mineral Potential" has also included critical mineral resource potential, geo-economic evaluation, and key metallogenic areas within the scope of systematic research.

Petrobras and SGB already have a foundation for geological research cooperation. In March 2026, the two parties signed a cooperation agreement to jointly conduct stratigraphic research in the Marajó Basin, with a cooperation period of 545 days; SGB's publicly disclosed 2026 cooperation list also shows that multiple technical cooperation arrangements with Petrobras exist during the year. With SGB now proposing to further bring in Petrobras and Vale, the focus has shifted to funding and capacity coordination for critical minerals and regional geophysical surveys.