Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD has acquired mineral rights to two plots in central Brazil. The purchase was made in 2023 through a subsidiary, Exploração Mineral do Brasil, reports Reuters.
Covering 852 hectares of land, the plots are located in the central state of Minas Gerais in Coronel Murta, part of an area known as the country’s Lithium Valley, around 825 kilometres south from the company’s new factory in Camaçari. Exploração Mineral do Brasil has since hired the services of Minagem Geologia e Mineracao, a local mineral research firm.
BYD declined to comment to Reuters on the acquisition, and Minagem said it would need to seek permission from its client to speak on the matter.
Beside manufacturing vehicles, BYD is a leading producer of rechargeable batteries, including lithium-ion batteries, used in consumer electronics, and energy storage components, a key element in making intermittent renewables like wind and solar more viable. Recent years have seen the company expand beyond its many lithium mining ventures in China, most notably in Chile.
[See more: Labour practices among companies building BYD’s Brazil plant are under investigation]
BYD secured a contract in January 2022 to extract up to 80,000 tons of the critical mineral, then in April 2023 it was granted access to preferential prices for lithium carbonate produced by Chile’s SQM to feed a plant scheduled to begin producing cathodes by the end of 2025. Delayed by ongoing negotiations with the Chilean government, that project was still up in the air in August 2024 when BYD was selected as one of six companies eligible to submit proposals to develop a lithium project in Chile’s Altoandinos salt flats.
Unlike Chile and other South American countries, Brazil has avoided a heavy state presence in its lithium sector and even eased export controls on the metal in 2022.
Brazilian lithium is also easier to extract, its hard rock deposits lending themselves to traditional mining in a way that salt flats like those in Chile, Bolivia and Argentina do not. These factors, as well as BYD’s established presence in Brazil and strong Sino-Brazilian relations, may have influenced the decision to acquire the plots in Coronel Murta.
According to previous reporting, BYD was in talks with Brazil’s largest lithium producer, Sigma Lithium, over a possible supply agreement, joint venture or acquisition last January. Neither company responded to requests for comment by Reuters.
