A BNAmericas report suggests that Minas Gerais will try to sell its niobium special purpose firm Codemig to the national government to reduce its federal debt. 

In late October, the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais was granted substantial debt relief from the central government after joining the national Fiscal Recovery Regime (FRR) thanks to a favourable temporary judicial ruling. According to S&P, the local legislature has yet to approve the administration's proposed fiscal plan and related laws, which would improve the state's very weak fiscal profile and provide legal certainty to debt relief.

Minas Gerais has sought to resolve the problem of the state's debt with the federal government by joining the fiscal recovery regime for some time. The proposal foresees the sale of Codemig, which will generate revenues of over US$4Bn that can be used to cover the debt stock, a state press release said.

Codemig receives royalties from the production of niobium at CBMM. A profit-sharing agreement between Codemig and CBMM allows 25% of CBMM's net operational profits to the state of Minas Gerais. In H1 2023, Codemig posted a net revenue of US$160M, up from US$155M a year ago. Project Blue does not expect any sale of Codemig to impact operations at CBMM.