Last week, from 17 to 21 November, Marco Contardi — Project Development Manager for Energy, CRMs and Sustainability at FGV Europe — joined the Brazilian delegation at Raw Materials Week 2025 in Brussels, coordinated by ApexBrasil.
The mission aimed to present new opportunities in critical minerals such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and rare earth elements — key inputs for the energy transition, defence and high-value industrial sectors — and to strengthen cooperation with the European Commission, European financial institutions, companies and investors.
The high-level delegation included, among others:
Anna Repezza and Marcos Souza Vale from ApexBrasil; Alex Figueredo and Guarany de Moraes from the ApexBrasil Europe Office; Júlio Nery from IBRAM – Brazilian Mining Institute; Gustavo Santos Masili from MME; Osorio Coelho Neto from MCTI; Pedro Paulo Dias Mesquita from BNDES – The Brazilian National Development Bank; and Prof. André Carlos Silva from the Federal University of Catalão (UFCAT).
The participation of Brazilian institutions, organizations and companies in the EU–Latin America session on Critical Raw Materials and in the closing session of Raw Materials Week underscored Brazil’s central position in global CRM value chains and its growing role as a strategic supplier for the green transition.
On Wednesday, 19 November, the side event ‘Brazil as a Strategic Partner for Sustainable Value Chains in Critical Raw Materials’, the panel ‘Green Industrial Corridors: Brazil–Europe Cooperation’ took place, moderated by Marco Contardi, with speakers Anne Oxley (Brazilian Nickel), Pablo Ortega Van Giel (AMG Lithium GmbH), Natascha Nunes da Cunha (DG INTPA, European Commission) and Flérida Regueira Cortizo (Germany Trade & Invest). The discussion highlighted three key points:
- Green Industrial Corridors can enable end-to-end supply chain integration between Brazil and Europe, reducing reliance on third-country intermediaries.
- Midstream investments in Brazil can add substantial value, leveraging its mineral resources and abundant renewable energy, while downstream activities remain closer to consumer markets.
- A successful framework requires strong regulation and industrial policy, along with enabling infrastructure, industrial parks, R&D hubs and integrated financial solutions.
The series of meetings held by the delegation proved highly relevant and impactful, generating several concrete outcomes:
- Advancement of negotiations on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Brazilian government and the European Commission for a Strategic Partnership on Sustainable Minerals and Metals Value Chains, promoting value addition and beneficiation of critical minerals close to extraction sites—following models already established with Australia, Canada, Chile and South Africa.
- Identification of financial opportunities for companies in the investment portfolio defined by ApexBrasil with IBRAM, including AGM Lithium, Brazilian Nickel and ACLARA, to support upstream sustainable mining and midstream mineral processing investments.
- Initiation of Brazil’s association process with the European Co-funded Partnership on Raw Materials for the Green and Digital Transition, a Horizon Europe applied research programme with a budget exceeding €300 million.
- Activation of strategic and technical support from the DG INTPA CRMs Facility, managed by EIT InnoEnergy and EIT Raw Materials, to help Brazilian companies qualify as Strategic Projects under the EU Critical Raw Materials Regulation, enabling access to potential funding from the European Commission and the European Investment Bank.
FGV Europe looks forward to advancing this agenda with our partners in Brazil and Europe.
Thank you ApexBrasil Brussels, all partners and collaborators.