|
Brazil - Mining
Mining
Since the early colonial period, expectations have loomed large
about mineral riches hidden in Brazil's
vast territory. However, the full extent of the country's mineral
wealth is still unknown. Various efforts have been made to survey
the country, one of which uncovered the Greater Carajás mineral
province in the eastern Amazon (see fig. 9). Yet, at the beginning
of the 1990s only 10 percent of the country's subsoil was known
in sufficient detail. Correspondingly, the share of mining in GDP
has increased but remains small; in 1950 it was only 0.4 percent,
rising to 0.8 percent in 1970, to 1.0 percent in 1980, and to 2.5
percent in 1986, but declining to 1.5 percent in 1990.
The value of mineral production expanded from US$5.4 billion in
1980 to US$13.0 billion in 1990. However, only ten minerals--crude
oil, iron, gold, calcium ore, natural gas, bauxite, phosphate, granite,
cassiterite, and zinc--accounted for 85.5 percent of this total;
crude oil alone accounted for 37.6 percent of the total, and both
iron ore and gold accounted for 11.4 percent each. Apparently, the
exploration of several other mineral substances has great potential,
but such efforts have yet to be realized.
Advances in the early 1990s included the Greater Carajás
project, which involves the production and export of iron ore, products
of the bauxite-aluminum complex, and manganese, among other minerals.
Overall, exports of mineral products expanded substantially, and
there was a considerable import substitution of mineral inputs.
In 1974 the trade balance of the mineral sector (primary, semiprocessed,
and manufactured minerals) was a negative US$2.5 billion, and the
deficit increased, reaching US$10.7 billion in 1980. However, by
1985 the deficit had declined to US$0.6 billion and thereafter the
trade balance showed growing surpluses (US$1.1 billion in 1988,
US$1.3 billion in 1989, and US$1.6 billion in 1990). This reversal
was caused by an expansion of exports, especially of iron ore, products
of the bauxite-aluminum complex, and manganese, and to a significant
extent by reductions in crude oil imports.
Brazil's mineral policy has been marked strongly by national security
considerations. Until the early 1990s, foreign capital was mostly
barred from the more attractive portions of the sector. Petroleum
has been a state monopoly. Another state enterprise, the giant Rio
Dôce Valley Company, Inc. (Companhia Vale do Rio Dôce--CVRD),
has a large share of the iron ore deposits, and it has played an
important role in the development of the bauxite-aluminum complex
and of other minerals. CVRD is also a major railroad and shipping
operator, by far Brazil's largest exporter,
and its largest generator of foreign currency. In late 1994, foreign
investment funds held about 10 percent of CVRD's stock. In 1995
there were still legal obstacles to foreign participation in Brazil's
mineral sector.
Data as of April 1997
|
|
