Brazilian Government denies any intention to nationalize mineral deposits

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• Publié par: ml-a-marcelo-lins-associados-comunicacoes-ltda
• Nombre de lectures: 24
• Langue: English

Extrait

Brazilian Government denies any intention to

nationalize mineral deposits

PR Newswire

SAO PAULO, July 5, 2012

SAO PAULO

,

July 5, 2012

/PRNewswire/ -- The Brazilian government has no

plans to intervene directly in the mining sector via a state company or to

nationalize mineral deposits that might be deemed strategic to national

interest, a senior government official in an exclusive interview published

Wednesday by

Brasil Mineral

, the country's leading trade magazine for the

sector.

"We want to make it very clear that the Brazilian Geological Survey (CPRM) will

not begin to prospect for or mine minerals as if it were a state-owned

company," said Claudio Scliar, geology, mining and mineral processing

secretary at the Mines and Energy Ministry, rebutting recent press reports. "We

have never considered nationalizing the sector, in the sense of creating (state-

owned) companies."

What the government is looking at, Scliar said, is changing the existing system

in ways that would facilitate the operations of companies wanting to invest in

mineral production. The government will seek to move from the existing

system, under which mineral rights in a specific area are awarded to whoever

registers the claim first, to a system whereby interested companies will need to

bid for areas at an auction to be conducted by a planned regulatory agency.

Scliar said that the new rules would apply to all minerals with the exception of

those destined for civil construction. These rights will continue to be awarded,

and the responsibility for awarding production licenses may be delegated by

the federal government to other levels of government.

Until the government's new proposal is approved there will be a transition

phase during which mineral rights will continue to be issued in the current

manner, but only after much more rigorous analysis. "We will not simply carry

on stamping and signing (requests)," Scliar said.

Companies that depend on mineral rights to continue existing projects have

absolutely no cause to worry, he said: "The last thing the government plans

doing is getting in the way of companies that want to produce. But speculation

in mineral areas will no longer be tolerated; we want to do away with the

culture of trading in mineral rights, and indeed we see this as a way of

encouraging investment."

There is currently an average delay of 10 years from the granting of

prospecting rights to a request for production rights, he said.

Scliar said that under the government's proposals, the question of strategic

minerals – principally metallic minerals – would be addressed by a yet-to-be-

created National Minerals Policy Council (CNPM).

Contact information:

Roseli Rodrigues,

[phone],

[e-mail]