A campaign document belonging to Flavio Bolsonaro, the right-wing front-runner in the presidential election to be held in Brazil next month, offered Washington a rare earths supply chain designed to weaken China’s grip, local news site Amado Mundo reported on Saturday.
Written in English and dated March 19, the 22-page presentation was drafted by Andre Marinho, a close Bolsonaro ally who presented the plan to the Rockbridge Network, a group of wealthy conservative donors founded by J.D. Vance in 2019, Amado Mundo said.
Marinho, who built a television career impersonating Flavio’s father, Jair Bolsonaro, and is running for governor of Rio de Janeiro, confirmed on Saturday that he wrote the document, but claimed it was “never shown to an American official and had nothing to do” with Flavio’s campaign.
Brazil holds the world’s second-largest rare earth reserves, and Washington and Beijing have spent the past year competing for them.
Left-leaning President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has refused to choose, balking at any American US deal by citing a law restricting exports of unprocessed ore.
American money has arrived without waiting for that law, however, starting with USA Rare Earth’s US$2.8 billion purchase of the Serra Verde mine in Goias in April.