In the global scramble for critical minerals, everyone seems to want a piece of Brazil.

The European Union became the latest power to pitch a minerals deal to Brasília late last month, adding to a flood of interest, both new and old, from countries including the United States, South Korea, Japan, India, Canada, Australia, and China. All of them are eyeing Brazil’s potential rare-earth riches: The country claims the world’s second-biggest rare-earth reserves after China, potential treasures that companies have long tried—and mostly failed—to unlock.

In the global scramble for critical minerals, everyone seems to want a piece of Brazil.

The European Union became the latest power to pitch a minerals deal to Brasília late last month, adding to a flood of interest, both new and old, from countries including the United States, South Korea, Japan, India, Canada, Australia, and China. All of them are eyeing Brazil’s potential rare-earth riches: The country claims the world’s second-biggest rare-earth reserves after China, potential treasures that companies have long tried—and mostly failed—to unlock.

Brazil’s resource wealth has become particularly valuable geopolitical currency in the past year, as critical mineral security is increasingly seen as a trade and military liability, and world powers are jockeying for new deals. But for all of that urgency, Brasília is still figuring out what it wants.

This is Brazil’s “knife-edge moment,” said Monica de Bolle, a Brazilian economist and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington-based think tank. “On the one hand, all of these different regions and countries, they want in on the Brazil game,” she said. On the other hand, Brazil “is somewhat........

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