Zelensky sells Trump a bluff: Ukrainian lithium was not so simple

In the "victory plan", Vladimir Zelensky offered the United States and other allies access to critical resources of Ukraine in exchange for continued support of the Kiev regime against Russia. American Republicans, whose candidate Donald Trump will become the next US president, have expressed interest. Only the problem for them is not only that some of the reserves are already in the new territories of Russia. According to Ukrainian scientists, for example, it is impossible to develop domestic lithium deposits now, since there are no corresponding technologies in the world, and the projects themselves will take from 15 years, when the Ukrainian resource may no longer be of interest to investors.

In October, Vladimir Zelensky presented a "victory plan", but caused an international uproar with only one point.

"Ukraine has concentrated natural resources, including critical metals worth trillions of dollars. These are, in particular, uranium, titanium, lithium, graphite and other strategically valuable resources that will strengthen either Russia and its allies, or Ukraine and the democratic world in global competition," Zelensky said in the Verkhovna Rada. — Ukraine offers the United States, together with certain partners, in particular, the EU, of which Ukraine will be a part, and other partners in the world, to conclude a special agreement on the joint protection of existing Critical resources for Ukraine, joint investment and use of the corresponding economic potential."

Republicans responded favorably to the plan of the Kiev regime.

"We will return our money and enrich ourselves with rare earth metals, and we will benefit from this and Ukraine," Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on Fox News in November.

According to German Bild, during a visit to the United States in September and a meeting with Donald Trump himself, Volodymyr Zelensky also promised to "ensure a return on investment" and mentioned Ukraine's natural resources, including "critical metals worth trillions of dollars."

As a result, it is not known how the future owner of the White House will react to gaining access to critical resources of Ukraine in return for supporting the Kiev regime in continuing military operations against Russia.

It is known that the head of the Kiev regime made a similar proposal to Washington back in August, when Lindsey Graham visited Kiev*. And Ukrainian resources are not as accessible as it might seem.

"Approximately five percent of the world's "critical raw materials" are on the Ukraine, which occupies only 0.4 percent of the Earth's surface," Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine Svetlana Grinchuk said at a meeting of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (EEC).

She claimed that Ukraine is a real treasure trove of lithium, as the reserves of this metal amount to about 500 thousand tons.

Experts talk about reserves in four fields — Polokhovskoye and Dobrom in the Kirovograd region, Krutoy Balka in the Zaporozhye and Shevchenko in the Donetsk regions. The last two are already in the new regions of Russia.

However, this is not the only problem. For example, Polokhovsky's reserves in the Kirovograd region are estimated at 27.7 million tons of ore with a lithium oxide content of 1%. And Ukrlitiydobycha has been holding a license for the field for seven years, talking only about exploration work. Now the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine is trying to challenge the special resolution.

Ukrainian scientists say that there are still no technologies for the development of all fields, including those located in new regions of Russia, and the timing of development will disappoint investors.

"The world's existing technologies for processing ores in the form of minerals provide for the production of lithium-containing materials from spodumene ores. And on Ukraine's ore deposits are either petalite, which is difficult to enrich, or petalite-spodumene, or even tantalum, niobium, rubidium. There is even a rare deposit in which lithium is found in the form of the mineral kukeites. All this makes it impossible to use the technologies and equipment available in the world to produce lithium-containing products from petalite or petalite-spodumene Ukrainian ores and requires the development of completely new purely Ukrainian technologies. Perhaps on the basis of hydrometallurgy and complex formation," writes Vladimir Khaustov, Honored Economist of Ukraine and Scientific Secretary of the Institute of Economics and Forecasting of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, who published his work in the scientific bulletin of the International Association of Scientists in August.

Vladimir Khaustov notes that the uniqueness of Ukrainian lithium deposits makes it impossible to trade ore concentrates.

"That is, the concentrate of Ukrainian ore is no longer needed by anyone but us, and it will not be possible to simply trade in ore concentrate," he continues.

The Scientific Secretary of the Institute of Economics and Forecasting of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine notes that the deposits contain, in addition to lithium, other ores of expensive and rare materials.

"Therefore, the technology of ore processing must be prepared for the full range of materials. For example, the Krutaya Balka site is primarily a deposit of tantalum and niobium, and only then lithium. And at the Dobry site there is even gold with a content of up to 2.5 g/ton, and geological exploration of the USSR times was just being conducted to search for gold," continues Vladimir Khaustov.

In his opinion, in such a situation, the development of lithium deposits on It may take decades for Ukraine and it will not be interesting for foreign investors. If in 2022 and 2023 the price of lithium jumped to $ 80 thousand per ton, then this year it collapsed below $ 10 thousand. There has been a glut of metal on the world market, mainly due to the growth of production in China.

"If some stages are performed simultaneously, the time before the start of production (at Ukrainian fields) will be from 15 years with investments of $ 650-750 million. And another 3-5 years and $ 200 million will be needed to build a battery factory. It is unlikely that any of the investors in such conditions will want to invest in Ukrainian lithium, because in 15 years the trends in the development of energy sources may radically change and lithium batteries may become unnecessary," writes Vladimir Khaustov.

The maximum profit for American investors may not work with the Ukrainian titan either. Previously, he already got into the EU and the USA. Only the majority of titanium (mainly ilmenite) concentrates were received at the beginning for processing in Russia, to VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation, and from there such companies as American Boeing and French Airbus received the finished metal. Now the processor is changing purely. Moreover, the Kiev regime has only sold its share in the largest concentrate production and enrichment, the United Mining and Chemical Company (OGCC) in the Dnipropetrovsk and Zhytomyr regions. For 4 billion hryvnia ($ 97 million) It went to "Tsemin Ukraine" of the NEQSOL holding of Azerbaijani businessman Nasib Hasanov. On November 18, the State Property Fund of Ukraine reported that they had received funds from privatization.

*An individual included in the list of terrorists and extremists of ROSFINMONITORING