Now that the United States has obtained an agreement to exchange rights Mineral reserves in Ukraine -In that, the decisive elements of a group of high-tech applications, from the operation of electric cars to warplanes and tanks-The road to extracting minerals is already fraught with tremendous challenges and uncertainty.
And ending the war with Russia, which was raging for more than three years, is only the first obstacle that you will need to overcome before the United States can realize any possible clarity.
Maps showing trillion dollars Metal deposits spread across Ukraine Including in the areas occupied by Russian forces – they depend largely on outdated studies, and appropriate surveys may take several years to complete. It may not be easy to extract deposits; Investors will need to pump billions to Ukraine to withdraw resources from the ground.
The country’s energy infrastructure – which is still displaying its bombing by missiles and drone planes – will have to provide huge amounts of energy needed to maintain mining operations.
President Trump He said that the United States stands to earn hundreds of billions of dollars from the deal, which is much higher than a billion dollars annually and that Ukraine earns royalties than its natural resources.
However, for the United States, the potential upward trend is tremendous as Washington is trying to find a way to reduce its weakness on China’s dominance and treatment of minerals. China controls more than 90 percent of global processing and 60 percent of rare ground mineral mining that is used in products such as mobile phones and electric cars.
“One of the attractive things in Ukraine, globally, many reserves have been moved by the Chinese, and Ukraine is full of unbelievable capabilities,” said Grosilin Baskran, director of the critical metal security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Natalia Shapoval, Vice President at Kiev Economics College, said that the deal also provokes the possibility of gas and oil development in the Black Sea and perhaps even the Azov Sea, which provides the most immediate opportunities for profitable projects.
She has the ability to be a good deal for both Ukraine and the United States.
She said: “It defines the state to recover, to invest, to develop the Black Sea region.” The neighboring Romania is developing large deposits of natural gas in the Black Sea.
But many details should still be determined and will depend on the course of war and form any possible peace deal.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has sparked the possibility of a share in his country’s natural resources last year as a way to provide the United States a tangible reason to support his nation’s fighting.
But the differences about the form of a deal stained with tensions between Mr. Zellinski and Mr. Trump, just as the White House reinstated direct conversations with President Vladimir F. Putin from Russia.
Against the background of that background, some condemned the first White House’s proposal by some as extortion – forcing the nation that was a victim of the aggression to pay compensation for previous American support without any guarantees for future security assistance.
He resisted Kyiv, and the deal was reformulated.
The Ukraine government estimates that the country He has 5 percent Among the most raw materials in the world – including lithium, vitanium, uranium and graphite. The American Geological Survey found that Ukraine has deposits of 20 of 50 minerals listed as decisive for economic development and defense in America.
But Mrs. Baskran warned that it might take several years to make appropriate surveys.
“There may be a lot of viable deposits economically, or it may be viable,” she said, adding: “On average it takes 18 years after finding a vibrant deposit to go to extract.”
Martin Jackson, head of the Crua battery raw materials, a commodity research company, said a potential mine in Bulukevsk, Ukraine, has a permit to produce up to about 2 percent of the global show of lehium, a decisive component of batteries, said Martin Jackson, head of the Cru Battle Cru, a commodity research company.
However, he said that this feature alone is not enough to make sure that the mine is moving forward, although it will be an important resource for Europe. Mineral depression prices complicate less dangerous projects around the world.
“The biggest obstacle here is actually the Lithium market,” he said.
Deniz Alwishin, chief strategy official at Oukrlithiummining, the owner of the mine, said that the company obtained a miner license in 2017 and hoped to extract lithium by 2029, but it still needs to raise $ 350 million to complete the project, which is a slowdown in war.
He said he believed that the metal agreement with the United States presented an “opportunity for the Ukrainian mining sector” given the amount of capital needed to make the project succeed.
He said: “Ukraine is historically lacking in foreign direct investment,” but warned that the great progress was unlikely to be the war.
