On the Sunday night of the second round of the 2024 municipal elections, after voting for Belo Horizontethe then banker Daniel Vorcarofrom Master Bankhe told his girlfriend, Martha Graeff, that he was at home, in a meeting, with a minister and with Duda, with whom, he explained, he had “mining business”.
The message exchanges were extracted from Vorcaro’s cell phone by Federal Police and are a starting point for understanding a web of connections of the Master’s owner that is still little talked about in the mining sector, in which the former banker invested.
The Duda mentioned by Vorcaro is Eduardo Wanderley, a friend of the former banker and whose family has investments in different sectors. He is a partner at 3D Mineração, for example, which was financed by Master to compete in an auction organized by ANM (National Mining Agency). Vorcaro and Duda had a habit of visiting each other and frequenting the same places.
THE Sheet he cross-referenced public data on Executive ministers, such as reports, public agendas and ticket issuance, and also sought out press offices to check the location of all male ministers that day.
He just couldn’t confirm where he was. Celso Sabinowhich has a political base in Pará. His advisor did not respond until the publication of this text.
On that day of the meeting reported by Vorcaro to his girlfriend, the minister who was in Belo Horizonte was Alexandre Silveirafrom the Ministry of Mines and Energy. Minas Gerais politician, he voted and followed the victory of the candidate he supported, Fuad Noman.
THE Sheet made contact with Vorcaro and Duda and questioned what was discussed in the meeting that took place on the night of that Sunday, October 27th.
In a note, the MME (Ministry of Mines and Energy) said that the minister maintains dialogue with public and private agents within institutional normality, without favoritism. “Minister Alexandre Silveira categorically rejects any conclusions that associate institutional agendas or personal commitments with undue interests.”
After the publication of this text, the MME sent a supplementary note saying that the minister did not participate in a meeting with businesspeople or deal with any topics related to private business on the mentioned date. “On October 27, 2024, after fulfilling a public agenda, the minister returned to his residence.” THE Sheet maintains the information.
Vorcaro’s defense understood that it is not appropriate to comment on what it qualifies as “content that results from illegal leaks of confidential material”. And he highlighted: “These are facts that are already the subject of a criminal investigation determined by the minister André Mendonça at the Federal Supreme Court. Any manifestation regarding information obtained in this way would only reinforce the dissemination of content whose disclosure is, in itself, the object of investigation”.
Wanderley did not return until the publication of this text. He was contacted using three different cell phone numbers and at one of his family’s companies.
MINING CONNECTIONS
Five people who follow the business scene in Minas Gerais, interviewed by the report with the commitment of not having their names disclosed, say that the closeness between Silveira and the Wanderley family has been known for years, and that the minister got closer to Vorcaro as the banker gained prominence.
Silveira and the Wanderleys even share jets.
Duda and the minister flew together on November 14, 2025, a Friday. Anac (National Civil Aviation Agency) records show that both boarded at the terminal in Brasília at 7 am heading to São Paulo, on the aircraft registration number PR-FNE, a Hawker 850XP.
With the two were Silveira’s advisor and fiscal advisor to the state-owned Nuclep, Hemeline Soares, and state deputy Gil Pereira (PSD-MG), a close ally of the minister and president of the ALMG’s Mines and Energy Commission.
The aircraft, with capacity for ten passengers, belongs to two companies: Conasteca Consultoria e Assessoria Técnica e Administrativa and Berg’s Aviation.
Conasteca has two partners, Athos Silveira, the minister’s cousin who manages several of his businesses, and the company Solidez Participações, which is chaired by medical student Maria Luiza Silveira, the minister’s daughter.
Berg’s Aviation belongs to José Alfredo Berg Filho, who transports the Minas Gerais elite. Berg, as he is known, appears several times in the conversation between Vorcaro and Martha Graeff because he took care of her and her family’s travel. Berg has five aircraft, and Silveira used the best of the fleet on this trip.
Before belonging to Conasteca and Berg, the plane was shared by other people equally close to Vorcaro and other members of Duda’s family: Belvitur, owned by Marcelo Cohen, Vorcaro’s partner in tourist ventures, Eupar, owned by Octavio Euler, and Saulo Wanderley, Duda’s uncle.
Hemeline Soares, Silveira’s advisor, also traveled with other members of this family, cousins Saulo Filho and Thiago Wanderley, on March 22 last year.
CROSS BUSINESSES
The Wanderley family is one of the most important in the economy of Minas Gerais. Among his best-known ventures are Cowan construction companies and Wanmix –sector in which Silveira’s family also prospers.
The Wanderleys are still a reference for their influence in politics and, frequently, donors in electoral campaigns.
In the mining area, two of the Wanderley businesses are directly connected to Vorcaro – the Victoria Falls fund and 3D Mineração.
Master managed the fund from 2018 to August 2025, when it was deregistered. Victoria Falls controlled 5W Participações, owned by Duda’s cousins, and other companies owned by the Wanderley family. The fund also owned, until its cancellation, 93% of the shares in mining company Thames.
The 3D mining company is a younger venture. In the market, the three Ds refer to the names of the two partners, the brothers Duda and Daniel Wanderley, and Daniel Vorcaro, who financed the companybut is not a member.
How to Sheet anticipated, the company was created 46 days before winning 116 areas in an ANM (National Mining Agency) auction, in August 2024. In one of the lots, 3D claimed, after winning, to have unintentionally registered an extra zero, which multiplied the bid value by ten, and requested a correction, reducing the value.
The request was accepted by the agency’s board at the end of that year, contrary to the opinion of the technical area, but following the guidance of the case’s rapporteur, Caio Seabra Filho —a nominee of Minister Silveira. The decision ended up generating questions at the TCU (Federal Audit Court).
In a note to the report, the defense said that Seabra Filho is not being investigated in this matter, that he recognizes that it would have been better not to have responded to 3D’s request and held a new auction of the area, but that a similar request had been accepted by the agency’s directors previously, which in fact occurred.
Months later, Seabra Filho appeared in a scandal. In September 2025, he was among 11 public agents and businessmen arrested in Operation Rejecton suspicion of participating in a criminal organization to facilitate the illegal extraction and sale of iron ore in Serra do Curral — which his defense also denies. “We trust that the ongoing investigation will only confirm the absolute regularity of his conduct,” he said in a statement.
One of the organization’s leaders, according to the Federal Police, would be businessman and former state deputy João Alberto Paixão Lages, accused of acting as the group’s “director of institutional relations”.
Lages is a campaign donor to Minister Silveira. In 2022, he donated R$100,000 to the campaign of the then candidate for Senate. Silveira was not mentioned in the material that supported Rejeito, which was kept confidential in the STFin October last year, under the report of minister Dias Toffoli.
In a note, the MME said that, although the donation appeared in Silveira’s accounts at the TSE (Superior Electoral Court), as provided by law, it was made to the coalition’s deputy, Virgílio Guimarães, who had a specific bank account. “It is also important to highlight that the donation was made before any relationship with the Ministry of Mines and Energy, since the minister was a senator of the Republic”, he stated.
Lages, in turn, did not respond to the questions that Folha asked his lawyer.
Another important company in this web is Itaminas. Vorcaro had 66.66% of the business, along with other traditional mining families, the Gontijos and the Géo.
In August last year, Vorcaro was elected president of the board of directors of Itaminas, but, amid the Master crisis, he resigned in October and, the following month, sold his stake to the remaining partners.
While Vorcaro controlled the business, Itaminas leased mines from Vale in Brumadinho, which caused its revenue to increase by more than 30% from 2024 to 2025. The lease occurred in the midst of a federal government campaign, led by minister Silveira, which pressured Vale to cede inactive areas to smaller companies.
“What we, unfortunately, have on the part of the large mining companies in the country is irresponsible,” said Silveira, for example, in March 2024 during the inauguration of a fertilizer complex in Minas Gerais. “It is unacceptable for some to stay with mining rights for 50 years without exploring them.”
When contacted through the ministry’s advisory services, Silveira did not comment on the issue.
Vale told Sheet that the The mineral partnership model is consolidated in the sector and adopted by the company since 2010. “All partner companies undergo a rigorous compliance audit, evaluating legal, integrity and security requirements”, he said in a statement.
“The negotiations for leasing the Jangada mine began in 2023, with a process approved by Cade and approved by ANM in 2025, after a fully transparent and regulated process.”
Itaminas, in a statement, said that negotiations for the lease began in 2022, when Silveira was not yet minister. “Itaminas’ growth is the result of investments made by its partners in recent years, with a focus on operational efficiency and expansion of its activities.”
