Does Ukraine have rare earth minerals?

IF Ukraine has a lot of rare earths, it’s news to the US Geological Survey, which doesn’t include the country in its list of either top producers or largest reserves, said Reuters.In an editorial on Monday, the newswire added that the handful of rare earth deposits that Ukraine hosts haven’t been surveyed since Soviet times.Rare earths are in the spotlight as they are part of a proposed $500bn arrangement in which Ukraine allows the US to exploit metals in return for security. The deal is part and parcel of peace deal potentially ending Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.“In mining terms, we don’t even know the size or composition of the resource, let alone whether it could qualify as a reserve deemed economically viable for extraction,” said Reuters. Ukraine does have confirmed reserves of other critical metals such as titanium and lithium but getting them out of the ground is a whole bigger challenge.In addition to infrastructural and power constraints in Ukraine, which has been ravaged by Russian hostility, there’s the question of whether any of the deposits can be mined profitably and whether Ukraine can compete with China’s extensive and long-developed rare earths supply chain.China has mastered the mid-stream part of the production cycle and is starting to leverage this technical know-how by restricting exports of critical metal processing technology, making it even harder for the West to catch up, said Reuters.“In short, it’s going to be a good while before Ukraine can deliver on its part of the minerals deal by monetising what is still in the ground.”The post Does Ukraine have rare earth minerals? appeared first on Miningmx.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com