Brazil’s geological survey, the SGB, is considering giving companies that help pay for airborne geophysical surveys temporary exclusive access to the results, under a 10 year survey plan estimated at 3.3 billion reais, about 650 million dollars, including 300 million reais a year to expand knowledge of the country’s mineral potential. SGB president Vilmar Medeiros Simões said in written answers that exclusive access would give a funder a temporary advantage associated with financing a specific survey, if legally permitted, and that all data would become public when the period ended.
The advantage matters because of how Brazil allocates ground. Under the Mining Code, priority goes to the first qualifying applicant for exploration rights over available ground, so early sight of survey results could help a funder identify and apply for prospective areas before competitors. “Anyone with early access to a regional survey will be able to apply for the best areas before everyone else,” said Luís Maurício Azevedo, chairman of the Brazilian Association of Mineral Exploration and Mining Companies, the ABPM. The ABPM supports private funding but wants exclusivity treated as an exception, capped at six months, confined to the co-funded area and carrying no priority over mineral rights. For small and medium companies, Azevedo said, the effect of early access for funders would be negative and potentially serious.
The SGB is in talks with state controlled Petrobras and mining company Vale about financing surveys for critical minerals, Simões said, but no instrument has been signed with any company. Funders would not have sole say over where surveys are flown. The public consultation on PlanGeo Geofísica opened on September 28 and runs until October 28, and any arrangement would need a legal basis and a formal agreement defining what is restricted and for how long. The survey has not specified the proposed exclusivity period.
Other countries handle the trade-off differently. Australia has allowed time limited confidentiality for company funded survey additions, with publication after a 12 month moratorium in one New South Wales case, while Western Australia co-funds company surveys and publishes data three months after the funding term. US Geological Survey partnership data are made public, and Canada’s federal mapping programmes publish openly. Brazil’s data have been free of charge since 2017; the consultation will show whether the funding need changes that settlement.