Ukraine has no rare earth metals, US knows about it - Bloomberg
US President Donald Trump and officials of his administration are convinced that Ukraine has reserves of rare earth metals. In fact, it has practically none, as the US Geological Survey knows.
This is stated in the text of Bloomberg’s columnist Javier Blas, who specializes in energy and raw materials.
Blas writes that rare earth metals refer to a group of 17 elements. It includes: scandium, yttrium and lanthanides (lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium and lutetium).
According to the US Geological Survey, the largest reserves of rare earth metals are held by China (44 million tons), Vietnam (22 million tons) and Brazil (21 million tons).
Ukraine is not on this list. Data from the US Geological Survey indicate that the country has small mines for the extraction of scandium, one of 17 rare earth metals.
Blas recalled that, according to Trump, the US wants to receive USD 500 billion worth of rare earth metals from Ukraine. At the same time, the annual global production of these elements is estimated at USD 15 billion.
"Even if Ukraine were able to produce a fifth of all rare earth elements in the world, to achieve Trump's goals, the US would need to ensure over 150 years of production in Ukraine," the expert writes.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on February 14, The Washington Post insider Josh Rogin wrote that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy instructed not to sign the agreement proposed by the US. According to Rogin, the document proposed transferring the rights to half of Ukraine's rare earth minerals to the US.
As The Associated Press later reported, the White House called Zelenskyy's decision not to sign the resource deal with the United States "shortsighted."
And last Tuesday, February 18, Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna said that Ukraine had not rejected the rare earth minerals deal.