According to the report released by Brazil's National Union of the Industry of Extraction of Iron and Base Metals (Sinferbase), the Brazilian mining industry (mining and mineral processing) recorded a surplus of $27.4 billion in 2012. During the year, the sector's exports amounted to $57 billion and imports totaled $29.6 billion.
According to data from the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC), the principal ore exported from Brazil in 2012 was iron ore, with a total of 326.5 million metric tons, worth about $31 billion. In 2012, revenues of the Financial Compensation for Exploiting Mineral Resources (CFEM) reached $919 million, 17.4 percent higher than in the previous year, led by iron ore which accounted for 72 percent of the total.
Meanwhile, in 2012 imports of primary mineral goods totaled $8.9 billion in 2012, down nine percent compared to 2011. This decrease was mainly due to the lower volume of imports of metallurgical coal, which accounted for 40 percent of imports. In 2012, Brazil imported 18.4 million mt of metallurgical coal, worth about $3.6 billion.