Trump in search of Ukrainian treasures.

Assistance to Ukraine in exchange for guarantees of U.S. access to rare earth metals is the position of U.S. President Donald Trump, a stance that the Ukrainian side does not oppose. What are rare earth metals? Why are these resources so valuable to the U.S., and what does China have to do with it?

ZAXID.NET spoke with Vasyl Diakiv, a candidate of geological and mineralogical sciences and an associate professor at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, who provides a detailed overview of Ukraine's critical raw materials.

What happened?

On February 3, U.S. President Donald Trump announced his desire to negotiate an aid agreement with Ukraine in exchange for guarantees of access to rare earth metals. According to Suspilne, citing a source in the President's Office, this is one of the points in the "victory plan" that Volodymyr Zelensky included, hoping to attract U.S. interest. Part of these deposits is located in temporarily occupied territories, so the U.S. would need to guarantee security for their development.

Later, Zelensky himself confirmed that Ukraine is open to American investments in mineral extraction. In Zelensky's opinion, if the U.S. does not invest in mineral extraction, it will be controlled by Russia and its allies.

“We have enough rare earth metals, and you see that Russia has been occupying our territories since 2014. There are indeed large deposits of minerals there. We are open to having all these (minerals) developed by our partners who help us defend the land. And this is absolutely fair,” said Volodymyr Zelensky.

What are rare earth metals?

Rare earth elements (REE) consist of 17 elements from the periodic table: Sc – scandium, Y – yttrium, La – lanthanum, Ce – cerium, Pr – praseodymium, Nd – neodymium, Pm – promethium, Sm – samarium, Eu – europium, Gd – gadolinium, Tb – terbium, Dy – dysprosium, Ho – holmium, Er – erbium, Tm – thulium, Yb – ytterbium, Lu – lutetium.

People encounter these rare earth elements daily, as they are found in phones, electric vehicles, and solar panels. REEs are used to create coatings inside fluorescent light bulbs that determine the color of emitted light. These elements are crucial for optics, lasers, aviation, nuclear reactors, and even chemical catalysts for oil processing. They are also essential for the military industry.

Why is this so important for the U.S.?

“Currently, the global monopolist is China, which supplies rare earth elements to the world market and has long been dumping prices to prevent competitors, including Ukraine, from developing. When, as a result of the trade war with the U.S., China announced it would stop selling rare earth elements, all countries, including the U.S., began to focus on securing their own resources,” says geologist Vasyl Diakiv.

Due to competition with China and the desire for independence from the monopolist, the U.S. is actively searching for new deposits of rare earth metals. In addition to China, deposits of rare earth elements can be found in Australia, Russia, Brazil, Greenland, Canada, Vietnam, and recently a large deposit was discovered in Norway (10% of global reserves).

How many of these resources are in Ukraine?

Ukraine possesses approximately 5-10% of the world’s reserves of rare earth resources.

“No one can provide exact data on rare earth resources; this is classified information. It is estimated that Ukraine has about 5-10% of global reserves, but it is impossible to speak definitively because they are not adequately assessed. The current estimates do not meet modern global requirements. For an investor to engage in development, these resources need to be evaluated according to contemporary standards. There are several deposits that require assessment and are promising. American, European, and other investors are aware of this,” says geologist Vasyl Diakiv.

Rare and rare earth metals have been identified in complex deposits and ore occurrences within the Ukrainian Shield, particularly in Donetsk, Kirovohrad, and Zhytomyr regions. Since part of the deposits is located in temporarily occupied territories, the U.S. would need to guarantee the safety of these areas for REE extraction.

According to the investment atlas compiled by the State Service of Geology and Mineral Resources and the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, rare earth metal sites are also found in Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

Official data indicates that the prospects for rare earth extraction are significantly linked to the development of the Novopoltavskyi apatite ore deposit in Zaporizhzhia and potentially several other ore occurrences. Ukraine has one beryllium deposit (Perzhanivske in Zhytomyr region) with reserves of 15.3 thousand tons of beryllium oxide, alongside tantalum, niobium, zirconium, tin, molybdenum, lithium, zinc, and more.

In addition to rare earth elements, Ukraine has significant deposits of other minerals. Specifically, Ukraine ranks among the top 10 countries in the world for surveyed titanium reserves and accounts for over 7% of global titanium extraction. Official data indicates that lithium reserves are about one-third of those confirmed in Europe.

So why aren't we utilizing them?

Rare earth deposits in Ukraine have never been developed, even during the Soviet era. There are several reasons for this – their extraction is quite complex and costly, and China has been dumping the market and meeting global demands.

According to Vasyl Diakiv, to start developing Ukrainian deposits, at least five years and a strong investor are needed. This time is required for research, project development, approvals, earthworks, and mine construction.

What does ecology say?

This is an important question. Candidate of geological and mineralogical sciences Vasyl Diakiv explains that developed countries are reluctant to exploit their own deposits. For instance, Norway, where a large deposit (10% of global reserves) was recently discovered, currently has no plans to develop it.

“Any extraction and processing causes harm to the environment, but modern technologies, if applied, can minimize this negative impact,” believes the geologist.