Donald Trump has offered a ‘barter’ to Ukraine: to achieve peace it is necessary to offer the resources that house their rare earths. The president of the United States wants to exploit the mineral resources that the country has in exchange for the money that the US has given Volodimir Zelenski to deal with war with Russia. The US supply chains They have been affected after the pandemic, for this reason the development of these resources has become an emergency to guarantee the future demand that occurs in different fields of the industry.
Before the conflict between kyiv and Moscow was unleashed, the UN has already revealed that about 5% of the ‘critical raw materials’ of the world are found in Ukraine, which occupies only 0.4% of the land surface . Among the materials are the Graphite, tantalio, scandio, lithium, cobalt or niobiumamong others. Lantanids are a series of 15 elements, plus the scandio and the itit, which appear in mineral deposits in areas such as Africa, Australia, Southeast Asia and South America. Minerals that are key in the production of devices, for the development of green energy and artificial intelligence.
The elements available in the rare earths are not strange, Solor exist in low concentrations and are difficult to extract. Therefore, in July 2021 the European Union (EU) and Ukraine signed a strategic association memorandum in raw materials to agree on cooperations in the exploration of new primary and secondary deposits, Digitization of geological and mining documentation, recycling of critical materials, modernization of the processes and technologies of extracted and refined or facilitating business opportunities between the value chains of the batteries under the umbrella of the Paris Agreement.
Critical minerals are indispensable for Renewable energy, artificial intelligence, military infrastructure or motor industry. It is estimated that China has about 40% of the world reserves of these materials, although it has not been the main producer because in the 80s it was the United States. In the Asian country, environmental standards are more lax allowing them an advantage in availability and processing technology to what it refers to. In December, Beijing came to prohibit the export of some rare earth materials to Washington.
What critical minerals offers Ukraine?
Ukraine is one of the 10 main countries in the world with Titanium reserves and represents 7% of world production. More than eight mines have been discovered equivalent to 15 years of production worldwide that can be used in the aerospace industry, domestic products or even in devices for the field of medicine.
He lithium It is not yet extracted in Ukraine. As explained by the memorandum that was signed with the EU, there are three explored deposits that contain lithium oxide, but which makes an investment of 250 million dollars miss. In 2021 an Australian public company acquired one of the six mines of graphite that has Ukraine, which is currently one of the five countries with graphite reserves that amount to about 19 million tons with 5% natural content. Both graphite and lithium are destined for the production of cathodes and lithium batteries with a capacity of 1,000 GW/h to manufacture approximately 20 million electric vehicles.
As for the nickelin Ukraine there are 12 deposits that also have cobalt as co -product. Since 2019 several companies have been interested in the deposits found in Kapitanivske and Prutivske. Rare metals like Tantaliohe niobium and the beryllium exist in six mines; On the other hand, the tantalio and the niobium are used as a co -product of the titanium in non -commercial volumes.
Towards a more digital and green economy
In full struggle to see who leads the career of artificial intelligence or renewable energies, China and the United States dispute these minerals to produce mobile phones, electric vehicles, military or spatial aircraft and electrical systems. Trump has said that Ukraine should give the US 500,000 million dollars in critical raw materials as payment for the aid that kyiv has already received from the previous administration of Joe Biden.
The European Union depends on other third countries to obtain critical minerals, hence it has agreements signed with countries such as Argentina, Norway, Rwanda, Serbia, Zambia or Democratic Republic of the Congo. From Brussels they have recognized that reliable and unblocking access to these materials It is a “growing concern in the EU”since thanks to them there are goods and applications that are used daily in modern technologies.
The Green agenda which is being carried out in the different EU countries mark the guide with which Brussels negotiates the farms and mining deposits of the rare earths of the countries. One of the problems that do not face China or the United States now under Trump’s mandate.
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