The contentious 28 February Oval Office meeting can’t be understood without a crucial piece of context: there are no deposits of rare-earth ore in Ukraine known to be minable in an economically viable way. And that would be true even if full-scale warfare were not raging in the country’s east, where a great deal of its mineral resources are concentrated.
Ukraine is believed to have four areas with substantial deposits of rare earth ores, according to Erik Jonsson, senior geologist with the Geological Survey of Sweden. “There are four slightly bigger deposits: Yastrubetske, Novopoltavske, Azovske, and Mazurivske. All but one of them seem to be now within or near the zone that the Russians control, as far as I can tell,” says Jonsson. “And when it comes to resources in those deposits, I mean, we have numbers; yes, that’s nice. But we have no real, detailed, outline of how those numbers were arrived at.” The numbers are believed to come from Soviet surveys dating as far back as the 1960s.
“The rare-earth deposits don’t look that relevant,” Jonsson concludes. “I mean, I wouldn’t go for them.” Two of the deposits are dominated by a mineral called britholite, he notes, which is not desirable because it has not been processed for rare earths, which means that almost nothing exists in the way of process chemistry and equipment.
“If you want critical minerals, Ukraine ain’t the place to look for them,” declares Jack Lifton, executive chairman of the Critical Minerals Institute. “It’s a fantasy. There’s no point to any of this. There’s some other agenda going on here. I can’t believe that anybody in Washington actually believes that it makes sense to get rare earths in Ukraine.”
I can’t believe that anybody in Washington actually believes that it makes sense to get rare earths in Ukraine
I mean, has he taken a look at the absolute buffoons in Washington lately? Trump’s literal self-given purpose in life is to make a deal, even if he has no idea about the technical side.
He bankrupted a casino and a steak business, and numerous others because he understands nothing. This is no different.
I don’t know, maybe. I am just wondering what this “other agenda” actually is. Undermining Ukraine’s EU accession? It’s independence? I don’t know, but it’s good that Zelenskyy has rejected the deal.
Trump is chaotic and unpredictable. His actions are mainly decided by personal greed and petty whims and grievances prone to change from one day to the other. But there is one constant in his behaviour since at least 2016, and that is his allegiance to Putin. He has never once convincingly criticised him, and everything he has done which involved Russian interests has always been in favour of Russia.
I low-key want Zelensky to sign any deal to get the US to go all-in, and when it becomes time to pay, just say “ehh, I thought you were just keeping up your end of the Budapest accords. Well give you minerals next time you help us out though!”
According to renowned scientists, Ukraine doesn’t actually have minable Rare Earths.
The contentious 28 February Oval Office meeting can’t be understood without a crucial piece of context: there are no deposits of rare-earth ore in Ukraine known to be minable in an economically viable way. And that would be true even if full-scale warfare were not raging in the country’s east, where a great deal of its mineral resources are concentrated.
Ukraine is believed to have four areas with substantial deposits of rare earth ores, according to Erik Jonsson, senior geologist with the Geological Survey of Sweden. “There are four slightly bigger deposits: Yastrubetske, Novopoltavske, Azovske, and Mazurivske. All but one of them seem to be now within or near the zone that the Russians control, as far as I can tell,” says Jonsson. “And when it comes to resources in those deposits, I mean, we have numbers; yes, that’s nice. But we have no real, detailed, outline of how those numbers were arrived at.” The numbers are believed to come from Soviet surveys dating as far back as the 1960s.
“The rare-earth deposits don’t look that relevant,” Jonsson concludes. “I mean, I wouldn’t go for them.” Two of the deposits are dominated by a mineral called britholite, he notes, which is not desirable because it has not been processed for rare earths, which means that almost nothing exists in the way of process chemistry and equipment.
“If you want critical minerals, Ukraine ain’t the place to look for them,” declares Jack Lifton, executive chairman of the Critical Minerals Institute. “It’s a fantasy. There’s no point to any of this. There’s some other agenda going on here. I can’t believe that anybody in Washington actually believes that it makes sense to get rare earths in Ukraine.”
[Emphasis mine.]
I mean, has he taken a look at the absolute buffoons in Washington lately? Trump’s literal self-given purpose in life is to make a deal, even if he has no idea about the technical side.
He bankrupted a casino and a steak business, and numerous others because he understands nothing. This is no different.
I don’t know, maybe. I am just wondering what this “other agenda” actually is. Undermining Ukraine’s EU accession? It’s independence? I don’t know, but it’s good that Zelenskyy has rejected the deal.
Trump is chaotic and unpredictable. His actions are mainly decided by personal greed and petty whims and grievances prone to change from one day to the other. But there is one constant in his behaviour since at least 2016, and that is his allegiance to Putin. He has never once convincingly criticised him, and everything he has done which involved Russian interests has always been in favour of Russia.
I low-key want Zelensky to sign any deal to get the US to go all-in, and when it becomes time to pay, just say “ehh, I thought you were just keeping up your end of the Budapest accords. Well give you minerals next time you help us out though!”
This needs to be its own post maybe. Jesus of course. It’s very on brand for America.