The European Union is offering Brazil a “more beneficial” partnership on critical minerals than the United States or China, the bloc’s international partnerships commissioner said on Thursday, promising investment in domestic refining and technology as Brussels works to cut its dependence on Chinese supply chains.

European Commissioner for International Partnerships Jozef Sikela made the case during a week-long visit to Brazil that included a stop on Saturday at a rare earth research and processing centre run by Australian miner Viridis Mining and Minerals in Pocos de Caldas, in Minas Gerais state, one of four projects chosen to speed up cooperation between the two sides.

The European approach was an advantage, he argued, because it prioritised business sustainability and the local processing of rare earths, aligning with a Brazilian government push to export processed minerals rather than raw ore.

“It is extremely important that Brazil also moves beyond low-margin business, that value is created here in the country,” Sikela said, describing Brazil as the EU’s most strategic partner in Latin America. The bloc could cover its needs through offtake agreements, while Brazil built its own refining capacity and moved up the supply chain towards higher margins.

Brazil holds the world’s second-largest rare earth reserves and has already set domestic processing as a condition of foreign access to its deposits, a position President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva cast as national sovereignty when he told US President Donald Trump in May that the reserves were “open to China and any other nation” willing to mine, separate and process the minerals on Brazilian soil.