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Ukraine has substantial supplies of key minerals, but some are now in Russian-occupied territory. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky travelled to Washington at the end of February expecting to sign a major deal with the US on the joint development of the country’s mineral deposits. Instead, after an angry meeting with Trump and US Vice-President JD Vance, Zelensky was told to leave and the deal was left unsigned.
The Ukrainian president has since said he is still willing to sign it, and Trump has also indicated the deal could still be on the table. Ukraine estimates that about 5% of the world’s “critical raw materials” are in Ukraine. This includes some 19m tonnes of proven reserves of graphite, which the Ukrainian Geological Survey state agency says makes the nation “one of the top five leading countries” for the supply of the mineral.
Ukraine has 7% of Europe’s supplies of titanium, a lightweight metal used in the construction of everything from aeroplanes to power stations. It is also home to a third of all European lithium deposits, the key component in current batteries. Other elements found in Ukraine include beryllium and uranium, which are both crucial for nuclear weapons and reactors.
Deposits of copper, lead, zinc, silver, nickel, cobalt, and manganese are also significant. Further, Ukraine has significant deposits of rare earth metals. Some of the mineral deposits, however, have been seized by Russia. According to Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukraine’s economy minister, resources worth $350bn remain in occupied territories today.
In 2022, SecDev, a geopolitical risk consultancy, conducted an evaluation, which established that Russia had occupied 63% of Ukrainian coal mines, as well as half of its manganese, caesium, tantalum, and rare earth deposits. Dr Robert Muggah, principal of SecDev, says that such minerals add a “strategic and economic dimension” in Russia’s continued aggression. By seizing them, he says, Moscow denies access to revenue for Ukraine, expands its own resource base, and influences global supply chains.
The US wants to reduce its dependency on China, which controls 75% of rare earth deposits in the world. In December, China banned the export of some rare earth minerals to the US, having previously limited mineral exports to the US the previous year. A deal between the US and Ukraine could help Kyiv exploit its minerals by attracting US investors to develop its natural resources, according to Iryna Suprun, chief executive of the Geological Investment Group.
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