President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has told Reuters he is ready to do a deal with U.S. President Donald Trump that includes U.S. involvement in developing Ukraine’s huge deposits of rare earths and other critical minerals.
Trump said on February 3 that he wanted Ukraine to supply the U.S. with rare earths in return for financially supporting Kyiv’s war effort against Russia. Zelenskiy aired the idea in his “victory plan” strategy, presented to Kyiv’s allies, including Trump, last autumn.
Among other things, the plan proposes reaching agreements with foreign partners to provide joint access to Ukraine’s strategically valuable resources.
It was not immediately clear if Trump was referring to all types of critical minerals or only to rare earths. He said the United States was looking to do a deal with Ukraine for “their rare earths and other things”.
Rare earths are a group of 17 metals used to make magnets that turn power into motion for electric vehicles, cell phones, missile systems, and other electronics. There are no viable substitutes.
China, with whom Trump has threatened a trade war, is the world’s largest producer of rare earths and many other critical minerals.
The U.S. Geological Survey considers 50 minerals to be critical, including several types of rare earths, nickel and lithium.
Ukraine has deposits of 22 of the 34 minerals identified by the European Union as critical, according to Economy Ministry data. This includes industrial and construction materials, ferroalloy, precious and non-ferrous metals, and some rare earth elements. Ukraine also has significant reserves of coal; however, most of these are now under the control of Russia in occupied territory.
Known as the bread basket of Europe, Ukraine also boasts vast mineral resources.
Some of these are essential for industries such as defence, high-tech appliances, aerospace and green energy.
According to the Institute of Geology, Ukraine possesses rare earth elements such as lanthanum and cerium, used in TVs and lighting; neodymium, used in wind turbines and EV batteries; and erbium and yttrium, whose applications range from nuclear power to lasers. The EU-funded research also indicates that Ukraine has scandium reserves. Detailed data are classified.
Zelenskiy said in an interview on Friday that Russia had occupied about half of Ukraine’s rare earth deposits.
Mining analysts and economists say that Ukraine has no commercial operational rare earth mines. Zelenskiy also said that Ukraine had Europe’s largest reserves of titanium and uranium.
According to the World Economic Forum, Ukraine is also a key potential supplier of lithium, beryllium, manganese, gallium, zirconium, graphite, apatite, fluorite and nickel.
