Debate over Brazil’s new mining code shifting gears

After a knife-edge campaign Dilma Rousseff, leader of the left-wing Workers’ Party, was re-elected with just 51.6% of the vote in Brazil’s October elections. Much of the debate revolved around the country’s disappointing economic performance; Brazil’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth has been lethargic over recent quarters and many analysts have predicted it will achieve an expansion of just 1% across 2015. In part, this is due to the resource supercycle hiatus – the plunge in iron-ore price across the second half of 2014 – a grim and worrying reminder of this for the country’s mining sector.