How Kyiv’s efforts to attract Trump with rare earths turned against him – politico

Hide underground

The question hidden from talks is how much has the mineral wealth of Ukraine.

The country has approximately 5% of the world’s rare land reserves, according to the UN which includes lithium, beryllium, niobium, tantalum, titanium, nickel, cobalt, graphite and phosphate, crucial elements for the energy, technology and defense sectors, said Alla Vasylenko, senior researcher with the Institute of Geological Studies of the sciences of Ukraine sciences.

“Most of them were discovered in the 1960s and 1980s. At the time, researchers did not pay attention to the problems that are currently very important: the planned land and the form of property, environmental, health and other restrictions for mining, as well as public opinion,” said Vasylenko.

“However, the reserves have been approved according to the Soviet system, which foreign investors do not understand. So, theoretically, we can say that Ukraine has the largest lithium reserves in Europe, but to understand their economic potential, we must first carry out additional studies on our deposits. ”

And getting this wealth out of the ground will not be easy

The war must end before Ukraine can extract the benefits of its underdeveloped critical mineral mining industry. The country would also need to repair its beaten energy network.