By Domingos Zaparolli, for Valor — São Paulo
19/08/2026

Brazil’s federal infrastructure concessions pipeline includes four railways and two waterways with the potential to have a major impact on the competitiveness of the mining sector. “These are projects that could reduce logistics costs by up to 50% for mining companies that currently rely primarily on road transportation to move their production,” says Adriano Viana Espeschit, Executive Director of J. Mendo Consultoria. “The availability of adequate logistics infrastructure could also make it possible to develop mines that are currently inactive.”

While mining companies handling large volumes of iron ore and bauxite have their own infrastructure, including dedicated railways, slurry pipelines, coastal shipping vessels and private port terminals, medium- and small-sized companies, as well as those handling minerals that do not generate large volumes, face the same logistical challenges that affect the competitiveness of the Brazilian economy as a whole. According to the Logistics and Supply Chain Institute (Ilos), logistics costs in Brazil are equivalent to 15.6% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), compared with an average of 8.4% among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.

“Mining is extraction and logistics. It is an activity that is very difficult to make viable when there are no efficient means of transporting production,” says Pablo Cesário, Interim CEO of the Brazilian Mining Institute (Ibram). “We could have a more diversified and intensive mining industry if the country provided good logistics infrastructure,” he says.

Under the federal concessions program, one of the main projects of interest to the mining sector is the implementation of the East-West Corridor, formed by the Central-West Integration Railway (Fico) and the West-East Integration Railway (Fiol), which will connect Lucas do Rio Verde, in Mato Grosso, with the future Porto Sul in Ilhéus, Bahia. The Ministry of Transport plans to hold the concession auction in December 2026.

“This is a project that will enable the expansion of iron ore and other mineral production in Bahia and reduce the costs of transporting lithium from Minas Gerais,” says Cesário. Bahia is Brazil’s third-largest mineral-producing state and has US$11.7 billion in planned mining investments through 2030, according to Ibram. In the state, Fiol could support the logistics of producers of iron ore, nickel, manganese, copper and uranium.

Bamin is developing a project to extract 26 million tonnes of iron ore annually in Caetité, which depends on the new railway to become viable. In 2021, the mining company assumed the concession for Fiol’s first section, a 537-kilometer (km) stretch between Caetité and Porto Sul, a project that is also the mining company’s responsibility.

Construction of Fiol 1 is currently halted, after 75% of the physical works had been completed. Bamin is in the final stages of being acquired by Portuguese group Mota-Engil, which will continue the logistics project.

British company Brazil Iron also depends on Fiol to make viable its US$5.7 billion investment in hot-briquetted iron (HBI), which has a purity level above 93%. The project includes iron ore extraction in Piatã, Bahia, and a processing facility near Porto Sul in Ilhéus, with capacity to produce 5 million tonnes of HBI per year. According to Emerson Souza, the company’s Vice President of Institutional Relations, a 120-km private railway spur will be built to transport ore from Piatã to the main railway line. Brazil Iron expects to begin operations in 2030.

In Mato Grosso do Sul, an important producer of iron ore and manganese extracted from the Urucum Massif near Corumbá, one of the region’s leading mining companies, LHG Mining, part of the J&F Group, is developing an expansion plan aimed at doubling its iron ore production capacity to 25 million tonnes per year by 2030. Production from Mato Grosso do Sul is transported mainly along the Paraguay River, on barges that travel approximately 2,700 km before reaching international shipping points at ports in Argentina and Uruguay along the Río de la Plata. In 2025, 9 million tonnes of minerals were transported by waterway. In 2024, a year marked by severe drought, transportation was limited to 3 million tonnes.

“It is a waterway that suffers greatly during periods of drought and requires dredging, proper signaling and constant maintenance to remain operational year-round,” says Espeschit. Maintenance of the waterway depends on the federal budget. The Ministry of Ports and Airports (MPor) plans to transfer responsibility to the private sector through the concession of the Paraguay Waterway, a roughly 600-km river section in Mato Grosso do Sul, between Corumbá/Ladário and the mouth of the Apa River in Porto Murtinho.

The concession proposal was submitted to the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU), with an initial auction scheduled for 2026. The process was halted because prior consultation had not been conducted with the governments of Paraguay and Bolivia, countries that also border the Paraguay River. The expectation is that the process will resume in 2027.

Mineral production in Mato Grosso do Sul could also benefit from the re-tendering of the Malha Oeste Railway. The railway comprises 1,973 km of tracks connecting Corumbá to Mairinque, São Paulo, where it connects to Rumo Logística’s Malha Paulista network, which continues to the Port of Santos in São Paulo. Malha Oeste is currently underutilized. The existing 30-year concession contract expires in 2026, and the current concessionaire, Rumo, has no interest in renewing it. The Ministry of Transport has scheduled an auction for November.

Pará, which accounts for 35% of Brazil’s mineral production, has US$19.6 billion in planned investments in mining expansion through 2030, according to Ibram. Iron ore, copper, bauxite, gold, kaolin, manganese and nickel are the main commodities produced. The state is also an important producer of pig iron and steel products. The main transportation route for its mineral production is the Carajás Railway (EFC), operated by Vale, which connects Parauapebas to the ports of São Luís, Maranhão.

Two concessions are planned for Pará. One is the Northern Extension of the North-South Railway (FNS), between Açailândia, Maranhão, and the Port of Vila do Conde in Barcarena, Pará, with an auction scheduled for September 2027. The other is the concession of the Tocantins Waterway, between Peixe, Tocantins, and Belém, Pará. MPor had announced plans to auction the waterway in 2026, but the process was postponed to 2027 following objections from Indigenous peoples and riverside communities in the region. “The extension of the FNS and the Tocantins Waterway will create competition for the EFC and reduce costs,” says Espeschit. According to the consultant, medium-sized mineral producers in Pará currently have few opportunities to access the EFC, which prioritizes Vale’s shipments, while also facing high costs.

Another concession eagerly awaited by the mining sector is the Southeast Railway Ring (EF-118), with an auction scheduled for September. The project comprises 571 km of railway connecting Nova Iguaçu, Rio de Janeiro, to Santa Leopoldina, Espírito Santo. It will connect MRS Logística’s Southeast railway network, which serves the Iron Quadrangle region of Minas Gerais, with Vale’s Vitória-Minas Railway and the Açu and Itaguaí ports in Rio de Janeiro, as well as the ports of Vitória and Ubu in Espírito Santo. Iron ore, pig iron and steel are expected to be the main products transported by the railway.

Mining companies are also planning their own logistics projects. In Minas Gerais, Cedro Mineração plans to increase its iron ore production to 20 million tonnes by 2032. Half of this production is expected to come from a mine in Mariana, where the company plans to install a nearly 20-km-long conveyor belt connecting the mine to the Vitória-Minas Railway, with capacity to transport 10 million tonnes annually. “It is a low-environmental-impact project that uses renewable electricity and has low operating costs,” says José Carlos Martins, Chairman of Cedro’s Board of Directors.

Cedro’s logistics strategy also includes a R$3.6 billion investment to build its own port terminal, Porto do Meio, in Itaguaí, Rio de Janeiro, with capacity to handle 20 million tonnes per year. Cedro currently sells its production in the domestic market. “With increased production and adequate logistics, we will participate in the international market,” Martins says.

Cedro’s plans also include the construction of a 26-km railway spur, Serra Azul, which will connect Mateus Leme to Mário Campo, Minas Gerais, where it will connect to MRS’s Southeast railway network. The investment is estimated at approximately R$2 billion. Serra Azul will not transport Cedro’s ore, but production from six mining companies in the Iron Quadrangle region of Minas Gerais that currently depend on trucks to transport their output.

Source: New Railways and Waterways Reduce Mining Companies’ Logistics Costs, Boosting Competitiveness