SEOUL: POSCO, Nippon Steel Corp and four other entities will buy a 15 percent stake in a Brazilian rare earth mining company for around $1.83 billion, a source close to the matter told Reuters.

South Korea's POSCO and National Pension Service and Japan's Nippon Steel, JFE Holdings, Sojitz Corp and a Japanese government institution are involved in the deal, the source said, declining to be named because an official announcement had yet to be made. He did not identify the name of the Brazilian company.

The Nikkei business daily said on Thursday that the consortium would purchase a 15 percent stake in Brazil's Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Mineracao (CBMM), which mines and processes niobium, a rare metal used to produce high-grade steel used in autos and pipelines.