Trump sees 'gold' in Ukraine: What are its valuable minerals and rare earths that the US wants?

Ukraine has reached an agreement with the United States on its mineral resources and rare earths. US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he could meet his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday at the White House to sign the deal.

According to the agreement, 50 percent of the profits from the exploitation of its untapped mineral resources will be allocated to a joint investment fund, over which the US side will have greater decision-making power and which will be used to make investments in the Ukrainian economy.

According to the country's Mineral Reserves Inventory, there are about 10,000 deposits containing 95 different types of minerals with commercial value in Ukraine's subsoil. Before the war, 3,055 deposits were in production.

In total, including unexploited minerals, Ukraine has 5 percent of the world's mineral resources and ranks 40th among mineral producers in all categories, according to the 2024 edition of World Mining Data.

Ukraine is positioned as a key potential supplier of minerals such as titanium, lithium , beryllium, manganese, gallium, uranium, zirconium, graphite, apatite, fluorite and nickel, according to data from the NATO Energy Security Centre of Excellence.

• Titanium: Ukraine has the largest reserves in Europe (7 percent of global reserves) and is one of the few countries that extracts titanium minerals, crucial for industries such as aerospace, medicine, automotive and marine.
• Lithium: Ukraine has the largest deposits in Europe (one third of the total on the continent). According to a report by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the reserves amounted to about 500 muk tonnes in 2022. Two of these deposits, Shevchenkivske (Donetsk) and Kruta Balka (Zaporizhia), are located in conflict zones. This mineral is used for batteries, ceramics and glass.
• Graphite: Ukraine accounts for 2.2 percent of global production and has estimated reserves of 20 percent of the world's total.
• Gallium and rutile: the world's fifth largest producer of gallium, essential for semiconductors and LEDs, and third largest producer of rutile - 12.3 percent of global production - used in the manufacture of refractory ceramics and metallic titanium.

It also has proven reserves of other rare earth minerals such as beryllium, essential for the nuclear power, aerospace, military, acoustics and electronics industries.

The country also has large reserves of other minerals, such as high-quality iron and manganese , which are essential for the production of green steel. In 2021, it provided 43 percent of EU steel plate imports.

It is also home to significant deposits of non-ferrous metals such as copper (fourth in Europe), lead (fifth), zinc (sixth) and silver (ninth) in Europe.