Brazil is considering a funding model that could give companies helping finance airborne geophysical surveys temporary exclusive access to the resulting data.
The Geological Survey of Brazil, known as SGB, says the arrangement could expand its survey capacity when public funding is limited. President Vilmar Medeiros Simões said a financing partner could receive a temporary advantage linked to a specific survey if the arrangement is legally permitted. In a separate explanation of private partnerships, he described possible confidentiality periods ranging from six months to two years, after which the data would become public. The agency has said any deal would require a legal basis and formal agreement.
Airborne surveys measure properties including magnetism and electrical conductivity, helping identify geological formations and potential exploration targets beneath the surface. A company that sees the results before competitors could use them to prioritize areas, seek mineral rights and decide where to invest, although early data access would not itself create priority over those rights.
The agency currently makes its airborne survey data available free of charge. Before 2017, companies paid for the data, while universities and research institutions received access six months after projects were completed. The proposed model would therefore introduce a temporary restricted-access period into a system that has generally treated basic geological information as a public resource.
Other jurisdictions offer examples of different approaches. In a 2019 survey near Cobar in New South Wales, exploration companies paid for an additional 800 kilometers of flight lines, and the resulting data were initially withheld under confidentiality agreements for a planned 12-month period. Western Australia contributes up to half the cost of some company geophysical surveys, subject to a 250,000 Australian-dollar cap per project, while data from comparable programs in the United States and Canada are made public.
The Brazilian Association of Mineral Research Companies supports private funding but wants exclusivity to be an exception, capped at six months and limited to the co-funded area. Simões said clear, objective and non-discriminatory rules should protect smaller companies, adding that attracting junior explorers is a central objective of the survey strategy. The unresolved questions are how long data could remain restricted, which areas would be covered and what protections would apply to companies that cannot help finance the surveys.