European Union Commissioner for International Partnerships Jozef Sikela has visited Viridis Mining and Minerals' rare earth research and processing centre in Poços de Caldas, Minas Gerais, underscoring Brussels' push to turn Brazil into a strategic partner for critical mineral supply diversification — with an approach explicitly built around helping Brazil capture processing value rather than simply extracting raw materials
Sikela said the EU's offer to Brazil differentiates itself from competing models by emphasising local value creation, sustainable production standards, job creation, technology transfer and education "What is extremely important is that Brazil moves from a low-margin business — basically that the value is created here in the country," he said during the visit
