Ukraine vs Russia: who offers more rare earth metals
28 February 17:22
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Trump said that on Friday he would sign an agreement with Zelenskiy under which the United States will become a major partner in the development of rare earth metals (REMs), oil and gas in Ukraine, which will allow for the return of money for the aid already provided to Ukraine.
According to U.S. President Donald Trump, the U.S. expects to recover $350 billion in aid to Ukraine through the minerals deal and earn even more in the future. The United States expects that the agreement with Ukraine on the RZM will bring a profit of $20 billion.
The day before, Russia offered Trump a joint mining deal for rare earth minerals, arguing that Russia has “somewhat more such resources than Ukraine.” Which country has more rare earths, found out
What is rich in the Ukrainian land
Rare earth metals are a group of 17 chemical elements. They include scandium, yttrium, and lanthanide metals (lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium). These metals are widely used in the production of high-tech devices such as smartphones, electric cars, solar panels, and in the defense industry.
Ukraine has certain reserves of rare earth metals, but they have not yet been fully explored and do not have the same scale of production as in some other countries, such as China, says
Among the most significant deposits:
Dnipropetrovs’k region (especially the area around the city of Pervomaisk) – there are reserves of rare earth elements such as cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, and others. However, the extraction of these metals is currently not significant.
Monazite and xenotime are mined in Dnipropetrovska and Vinnytsia regions.
Poltava region – small deposits of rare earth metals have been discovered.
Deposits in Cherkasy and Kirovohrad regions, where there are potential resources of rare earth metals, have not been fully explored.
Zhytomyr region is the center of rare earth metal mining: it produces such important minerals as bastnesite (used to extract cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, and praseodymium), monazite (containing lanthanides, yttrium, and thorium), and xenotime (containing yttrium and terbium).
Cerium and lanthanum have been found in some deposits in Donbas . For example, ore bodies containing cerium and lanthanum are found in the Luhansk region. However, their content in ore is usually not so high that these deposits would become major sources for industrial production.
Donbas has also found signs of the rare earth metals neodymium and praseodymium, which are used in the production of magnets and other high-tech devices. However, these deposits have not been explored at a deep level, and rare earths mining in Donbas has never been a major focus.
“Ukraine’s REM reserves are estimated to be moderate, but the country does not have a developed industry for their extraction and processing. Moreover, there are currently no accurate, publicly available estimates of the value of rare earth metal deposits in Ukraine, as these resources have not yet been sufficiently explored and there is no massive production. For example, it is estimated that the Pervomaisk deposit in Dnipropetrovs’k region may contain significant amounts of rare earth metals such as cerium and neodymium, but a full estimate of their value has not yet been published,” says Valentyn Verbytskyi.
Also, according to some studies, Ukraine has resources of rare earth metals in several regions, but at the stage of exploration or initial development, which makes it difficult to accurately estimate.
Mineral resources in Russia
Russia’s rare earth metal reserves are significant, and the country has been developing this industry over the past decades.
The Trans-Baikal region is an important region for rare earth metal mining in Russia. There are significant deposits here, such as the Gorny and Zyryansky mines, which produce metals such as neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium.
Irkutsk region – there are also deposits containing rare earth elements.
Krasnoyarsk region – with deposits of rare earth metals, in particular for the extraction of teracholite (which is a source of metals such as lanthanum, cerium, neodymium and others).
Rare earth metal reserves in the Trans-Baikal region – according to various estimates, deposits in the Trans-Baikal region alone may contain several tens of millions of tons of ore with high concentrations of metals such as neodymium, praseodymium and dysprosium. This makes them very promising for mining in the long term.
One of the more specific estimates is that in Transbaikalia and other regions of Russia, REM reserves could be worth as much as USD 10 billion, depending on current market prices for rare earth elements.
For example, the price of neodymium has been hovering around $100-120 per kilogram in recent years, while rarer elements can cost several times more.
“In total, Russia has 28.5 million tons of REM reserves. It should be noted that the group of rare earth metals includes 15 minerals (samarium, yttrium, lutetium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, praseodymium, thulium, lanthanum, cerium, ytterbium, terbium, neodymium, gadolinium, europium, promethium), and all deposits are complex. That is, minerals can only be extracted together, in one ore. And already from the ore, minerals can be separated into individual components,” the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources reports.
russia is actively developing a project for the extraction of rare earth metals, and the country is one of the leading countries in the world in terms of their reserves and processing. However, industrial production of these metals is still limited, and most of the processing is done abroad.
The US is not only interested in REMs
But if we talk about the minerals that are in the Ukrainian soil, according to rough estimates, their value is about $15 trillion, of which $9 trillion is coal. Ukraine has reserves of natural gas, oil and oil shale – up to $700 billion. We also have iron and manganese ore, which is more than $2 trillion in reserves and the second most important resource after coal. But there is one catch: all the ore deposits already belong to private FIGs, or, in other words, oligarchs.
“However, the Americans are interested in something else. First of all, the reserves of apatite-ilmenite, titanium-magnesium ores. Titanium is an important element in aircraft and rocketry. We have 600-700 billion dollars worth of these reserves. Next are lithium, graphite and germanium: total reserves are up to $200 billion. Lithium and graphite are needed for the production of electric vehicles, but the cost of mining the former in Ukraine is still higher than market prices for it. Ukraine’s uranium reserves are estimated at $30-50 billion. It may not seem like much, but it is strategically very valuable. Germanium is a unique element for the production of optics and semiconductors. Its reserves in Ukraine are estimated at $100 billion, and it can be extracted from coal seams,” says economic expert Oleksiy Kushch.
According to the UN, Ukraine has deposits of 21 rare and rare earth elements from the list of 30 substances defined by the European Union as “critical raw materials” in the production of products for the development of green energy.
Ukraine has lithium, cobalt, scandium, graphite, rare earth metals, and other elements that play an important role in the production of batteries for electric cars, renewable energy sources, and semiconductors.
“Approximately 5% of the world’s critical raw material reserves are located in Ukraine, which occupies only 0.4% of the Earth’s surface,” said Svitlana Grinchuk, Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine.
But the main problem is that the extraction of rare minerals is extremely harmful to the environment and human health. This includes soil and groundwater pollution. In addition, lithium mining requires a huge amount of water: up to 2.27 million liters per ton. Ukraine, contrary to the established stereotype, is a country with a water deficit, emphasizes Oleksiy Kushch.
However, since Russia is offering the United States joint extraction of the RFM, in particular in the occupied territories, namely Donbas, this deal is hardly interesting, if only because the territory is densely mined, and it will take time and serious funds to clear it. Not to mention the destroyed infrastructure that will also need to be restored. And most importantly, it contradicts international law and the US sanctions regime.
Author: Alla Dunina
