IP Use and Technology Transfer in the Brazilian Mining Sector

Industrial upgrade, economic catch-up and industrial policy in Brazil: general trends and the specific case of the mining industry

“…Because of this, one should expect that the growth in mining should induce an increase in the sector's R&D expenditures. This trend was observed for some mining countries during the 2000s; such as, Australia, the largest producer in the world, where expenses in innovation and R&D signifi cantly rose in that period (Blundi et al, 2019).…”

“…Vale S.A. is the world largest producer of iron ore and the third largest mining company in the world (Mining Global, 2020). The company´s share in the Brazilian production of iron ore is over 70% (BLUNDI et al, 2019). So, the results of Brazilian production of iron ore are highly correlated to the performance of Vale.…”

“…The reduced accumulated skills and capabilities in the Brazilian mining industry is due to the under developed production chain, which was not able to incorporate specialized suppliers domestically (Figueiredo et al, 2017). Some evidence for this statement is that more than 90% of the patent applications in mining technology in Brazil during the period of 2000 to 2015, which involves mining equipment, technology, and service suppliers, are from abroad (Blundi et al, 2019). The lack of industrial diversifi cation put several constraints on the internalization of technological opportunities, even in a sector in which Brazil plays a relevant role in the international market.…”

“…Technological innovations in the mines represented 1.4% of investments and in the case of the plants only 2.27%. With regard to technological trends based on patent applications in the Brazilian mining industry, the main focus has been on mineral processing (refi ning) and transportation and logistics (Blundi et al, 2019), which infers that domestic and multinational mining companies' technological efforts have been driven by the reduction of costs and the increase of productivity. This technological trend is in line with market movements and with the growth in competitiveness in the sector, in which competition is mainly based on operation scale gains and effi ciency in production.…”