Article content
(Bloomberg) — Ukraine has rejected a bid by the US to own 50% of the country’s rare earth minerals, as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy seeks to negotiate a better deal, the Financial Times reported.
Article content
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent presented the proposal to Zelenskiy in a draft contract, which was brought to their meeting on Wednesday, NBC reported earlier, citing eight US officials it didn’t identify. Zelenskiy didn’t sign the document and said he needed to study and consult others on it, according to the US outlet.
Article content
Zelenskiy wants US and European security guarantees to be tied directly to any deal on the mineral reserves, the FT said, citing three unidentified people familiar with the negotiations. A senior Ukrainian official told the newspaper Kyiv was seeking a “better deal.”
The Ukrainian Embassy in Washington and a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council didn’t respond to NBC’s requests for comment Friday.
The Trump administration has signaled that it expects Kyiv to grant access to its natural resources including critical minerals, as well as pledge to purchase US energy exports, in return for its military and economic support against Russia, which invaded in 2022.
Like many critical minerals, rare earths are relatively abundant globally, but they don’t often exist in concentrations that allow for them to be extracted and refined economically. Outside of China, the largest reserves are found in Brazil, India, Australia, Russia, Vietnam, and the US itself, according to data from the US Geological Survey.
USGS data shows that Ukraine has no major known rare-earth reserves, although the country’s own geological agency has stated that they have been found in a handful of mineral deposits, primarily in areas in the east of the country that are partially under Russian control. It has also identified reserves of several other critical minerals including titanium, lithium, and graphite.
—With assistance from Mark Burton and Valentine Baldassari.
Share this article in your social network
