At least five Brazilian and foreign business groups are positioning themselves in Brazil’s uranium and nuclear-energy sector, spanning mineral exploration, uranium recovery alongside rare earths, small reactor development and electricity generation. Their plans are taking shape as the government works on rules for private-sector partnerships with state-owned nuclear company Indústrias Nucleares do Brasil (INB).
Uranium exploration remains a federal monopoly exercised by INB. A law enacted in December 2022 expanded the scope for the company to partner with private businesses without ending the monopoly. Companies are waiting for a federal decree to clarify how such partnerships can operate.
The groups identified are Diamante, Atlas Critical Minerals, Core Energy Minerals, Brazilian Rare Earths (BRE) and Energy Fuels. Diamante has brought in two former officials from Jair Bolsonaro’s government: former mines and energy minister Bento Albuquerque and Ney Zanella dos Santos, former head of ENBPar, the state company that controls INB and holds the federal government’s stake in Eletronuclear.
Through its NBEPar unit, Diamante has partnered with Russia’s state-owned Rosatom to establish Nadina Minerals, which aims to develop mining projects in Brazil, including uranium. The group also plans to introduce a method that extracts uranium from underground deposits using injected chemical solutions. Separately, through Terminus, which it took control of in 2025, Diamante is developing a nuclear microreactor with support from Finep, universities and research institutions.
Atlas Critical Minerals, incorporated in the Marshall Islands, operating from Belo Horizonte and listed on Nasdaq, said in February that it held 39 mining applications with uranium potential, covering 143,700 hectares. The areas were registered for other minerals, including rare earths, copper, graphite and phosphate. The company said it was assessing uranium-potential areas in anticipation of possible legislative changes in Brazil.
Australian company Core Energy Minerals has three uranium projects, in Amorinópolis, Goiás; São José, Paraíba; and Grande, Rio Grande do Sul. It has reported land holdings of about 320 square kilometers in Goiás and 364.5 square kilometers in Rio Grande do Sul, and is conducting geological surveys, sampling and radioactivity measurements.
BRE plans to recover uranium found alongside rare earths at its Monte Alto project in Bahia and process the material in Camaçari. Its proposal includes producing yellowcake, a uranium concentrate that requires further processing before it can be used as nuclear fuel. The company has projected average output of 466 tonnes a year, rising to 540 tonnes annually during the first five years of stable production. Those figures relate to a potential future integrated operation, not current production or the pilot plant, BRE said. It also said its plans remain subject to Brazilian requirements and commercial discussions with INB.
Energy Fuels, a Canadian company with nuclear operations in the United States, began its Bahia Project in 2023. It has said its main interest is exploring monazite containing rare earths and uranium. The company described the project as early-stage heavy mineral sands research and said any further development would require the necessary authorizations and compliance with Brazilian law.
The activity comes as Brazil continues to rely on services abroad in parts of the nuclear fuel chain. INB extracts uranium in Caetité, Bahia, and produces a concentrate, but sends it overseas for conversion into gas and for part of the enrichment process. Brazil also enriches uranium in Resende, Rio de Janeiro, but lacks the capacity to meet all demand. After external processing, the material returns to Brazil, where INB turns it into powder, pellets and fuel assemblies for the Angra nuclear plants.
The government has yet to finalize its framework for private partnerships. The Ministry of Mines and Energy said in February that the decree was in its final stages and would be sent to the chief of staff’s office that week. By August, the proposal was still under discussion among technical departments. The chief of staff’s office said the matter remained under review in coordination with the ministry, noting that decisions require regulatory, economic and strategic assessment.
INB said it is working with ENBPar and the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) on the Pró-Urânio program, which aims to develop business models to expand the use of uranium and associated strategic minerals. BNDES selected a consortium in August to conduct studies, with proposals expected by the second quarter of 2027. INB and ENBPar will then decide on a suitable model and may launch a process to select private partners, BNDES said.
INB already has a partnership with Galvani through Fosnor to develop the Itataia deposit in Ceará. The project combines phosphate production for private-sector fertilizer manufacturing with uranium extraction by the state company. It still requires environmental licensing and has not begun commercial production. INB estimates annual output could reach 2,300 tonnes of uranium concentrate, alongside 1.05 million tonnes of phosphate fertilizers and 220,000 tonnes of phosphate.
Sources: Folha Mercado.