Fábio Medina Osório, for Legal500: “Niobium as a Geostrategic Pillar of the 21st Century: Brazil’s Centrality in the New Global Technological and Mineral Order”

In an article for Legal500, Fábio Medina Osório – head of Medina Osório Advogados – analyzes Brazil’s strategic role in the global niobium market, highlighting that the country holds around 98% of known reserves and more than 90% of global production, granting it a unique position in the supply chain. Niobium is essential for strategic sectors such as defense, infrastructure, energy, semiconductors, emerging technologies, and the energy transition. Despite this geological and commercial advantage, Brazil has yet to turn this potential into effective sovereign power, due to the absence of a structured and integrated national policy.

Among the vulnerabilities identified are the lack of a specific regulatory framework, insufficiently targeted tax incentives, the absence of interministerial coordination, and fragmented governance dominated by private interests. The jurist proposes the creation of a new legal and economic regime for niobium, with its own legislative framework, industrial and tax policies aimed at vertical integration, proactive mineral diplomacy, and the establishment of a technically skilled and legitimate public authority to coordinate governance.

Read the full article here.

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