Brazil Mine Investments To Reach $75 Billion In 2012-2016 Period

Investments in the mining industry in Brazil are set to reach $75 billion between 2012 and 2016, a record for a five-year period, Brazil's Mining Institute Ibram said Wednesday.

Mining will be the biggest area of private-sector investments in the country during the next five years, said Ibram's president Jose Fernando Coura at a mining meeting in Bahia state in northeast Brazil. The expected total for the coming five-year period beats the estimated investments of $68.5 billion for the 2011-2015 period, he said.

Investments in the mining sector are growing due to continued heated demand and high prices for mineral products, due to world economic growth, particularly in developing nations, Coura said at the event.

Growing demand, particularly from China, for minerals to use as raw materials, led Brazil's iron ore production to grow to about 467 million metric tons in 2011, 25% more than in 2010, according to Ibram. Iron ore accounted for 81% of Brazil's mineral exports in 2011, the institute said.

Brazil's gold output grew 13% in 2011 to 66 tons and should rise again this year to 70 tons, while output of niobium, in which Brazil is a world leader, also grew, Ibram said.

Brazil's total mineral production hit a record worth of $50 billion in 2011, double its value in 2009, and representing 3.8% of Gross Domestic Product, according to Ibram.

-By Diana Kinch, Dow Jones Newswires; 55 21 2586 6086; [e-mail]