The agreement of the US President Donald Trump with Ukraine on the supply of minerals is a great symbolic victory for both sides.
Just do not wait in the near future of excitement to Ukrainian critically important minerals.
At least everyone stopped calling this transaction on rare earth metals. The agreement covers all the bowels, including oil, gas and a wide range of metals.
deposits, which are economically and technically profitable, are relatively rare, and how promising the deposits of Ukraine are unclear.
Even the most cartographated Novopoltavskoye field was last examined in 1982-1991. It is also inconveniently located north of Chernigov in the Zaporizhzhya region, which from the Ukrainian point of view is on the other side of the front line.
like two of the advertised lithium projects. Indeed, about 40% of the metal resources of Ukraine are under Russian occupation, according to estimates by Ukrainian analytical centers We Build Ukraine and the National Institute of Strategic Research.
The disclosure of the full value of the transaction for the extraction of minerals will be impossible without the final world and the settlement of territorial claims of Ukraine and Russia.
The problem with many metals included in the list of the most important raw materials is not their extraction from the subsoil, although this can be a sufficiently capital -intensive process, but in their processing in high -sophisticated products that are ready for the production process.
Bet on a metal future
It is obvious that this deal for mining will have a long repayment schedule.
But this is a sign of time. Since the world is moving from the economy of fossil fuel to a metallic future, minerals have become a new geopolitical currency.
In this new world order, China is a dominant force, and the West is a competitor.
The United States has just taken a strategic step in a large global game for minerals. He will not be the last.
The following is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where another transaction “Minerals in exchange for safety” is considered.
