Hiding underground
The question lurking over the talks is how much mineral wealth Ukraine actually has.
The country has about 5 percent of the world’s reserves of rare earths, according to the U.N. That includes lithium, beryllium, niobium, tantalum, titanium, nickel, cobalt, graphite and phosphate, elements crucial for the energy, tech and defense sectors, said Alla Vasylenko, senior researcher with the Institute of Geology Studies of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine.
“Most of them were discovered in the 1960s-1980s. Back then, researchers were not paying attention to issues that are currently very important: the intended purpose of the lands and the form of ownership, environmental, sanitary and other restrictions for mining, as well as public opinion,” Vasylenko said.
“Yet the reserves were approved according to the Soviet system, which foreign investors do not understand. So, theoretically, we can claim that Ukraine has the biggest lithium reserves in Europe, but to understand their economic potential, we need to conduct additional studies of our deposits first.”
And getting that wealth out of the ground won’t be easy
The war has to end before Ukraine can extract the profits from its underdeveloped critical minerals mining industry. The country would also need to repair its battered energy grid.
