MRN Novas Minas bauxite licence: capex, capacity and schedule for mine planners
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on MINING.com
30 Second Briefing
Mineracao Rio do Norte (MRN), backed by Glencore, South32 and Rio Tinto, has secured an IBAMA installation licence for its Novas Minas project, enabling construction at five new bauxite mining sites across three municipalities in Pará and extending operations at Porto Trombetas to 2041. MRN plans to invest about R$9 billion ($1.8 billion) between 2027 and 2041, targeting annual production of 12.5 million tonnes of bauxite, close to its current output. The operation’s installed capacity remains 18 million tonnes per year, reinforcing Porto Trombetas as a key Brazilian bauxite hub.
Technical Brief
- IBAMA’s installation licence, granted in 2026, follows an environmental permitting process initiated in 2018.
- Five new bauxite pits will be developed across three Pará municipalities tied into the Porto Trombetas complex.
- MRN has operated at Porto Trombetas since 1979, implying mature haulage, beneficiation and port infrastructure already in place.
- Installed bauxite capacity of 18 Mtpa provides headroom above planned output for debottlenecking or short-term surges.
- Capex of R$9 billion over 2027–2041 equates to roughly R$600 million per year of staged works.
Our Take
With Novas Minas targeting bauxite and an operations horizon out to 2041 in Pará state, Glencore and Rio Tinto are effectively locking in long-life aluminium feedstock at a time when our database shows their recent deal activity has skewed heavily toward copper and other critical minerals M&A rather than bulk alumina inputs.
The approved 60 t yttrium oxide shipment from Brazil to the US, framed against China’s export controls, positions MRN and Glencore in the same critical-minerals narrative as the Q1 2026 M&A surge tracked in our coverage, where rare earths and specialty minerals featured prominently alongside copper and lithium deals.
IBAMA’s willingness to advance a project in northern Brazil that extends an operation first licensed in 1979 suggests that, for established hubs like Porto Trombetas, environmental licensing risk is more about schedule than outright refusal, which is material for operators planning brownfield expansions across Latin America in our 1212 Mining stories corpus.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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