UKRAINE REVAMPS CRITICAL MINERALS SECTOR – Eyes Billions In Investment From US Deal
Ukraine is overhauling its minerals sector, which has been pounded by three years of war, in the hope of unlocking potential and attracting billions of dollars of investment from a minerals deal with the U.S., its ecology minister said.
Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk told reporters in an interview that Ukraine hoped the fund would significantly increase the mineral industry’s potential, noting that extraction was a capital-intensive and long-term task.
Hrynchuk estimated that the sector had suffered losses of about 70 trillion hryvnias ($1.7 trillion) due to the occupation of Ukrainian territory and combat action along a more than 1,000 km (621 miles) frontline.
The country has deposits of 22 of 34 minerals deemed as critical by the European Union for industries such as defence, high-tech appliances and green energy, as well as ferro alloy, precious and non-ferrous metals used in construction, and some rare earth elements.
However, much of the sector is underdeveloped, weighed down by Soviet-era bureaucracy and a lack of investment.
The government was working to review an existing 3,000 mining licenses, and Hrynchuk estimated that about 10% of them could be dormant.
After months of fraught negotiations, Kyiv and the United States agreed on a minerals deal in April that was heavily promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump.
It created a fund, which became active on May 23, that will receive money from new mining licences in Ukraine and invest in minerals projects.
