Ukraine was all about rare earth minerals

[Jasin]

Australia only intervened in East Timor for a cut of the Diamonds there.

[Bobby]

Ukraine has about $14 trillion worth of rare earths.

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/14/g-s1-491 ... ths-us-aid

a survey of all mineral resources in Ukraine for Forbes Ukraine in 2023 and estimated their value at $14.8 trillion — an estimate cited by the Ukrainian government as well. (Other estimates have run even higher).

So Ukraine can easily pay Trump $500 billion.

[tllwd]

Ukraine has about $14 trillion worth of rare earths.

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/14/g-s1-491 ... ths-us-aid

a survey of all mineral resources in Ukraine for Forbes Ukraine in 2023 and estimated their value at $14.8 trillion — an estimate cited by the Ukrainian government as well. (Other estimates have run even higher).

So Ukraine can easily pay Trump $500 billion.

Any paper signed by Zelensky is worth nothing, Ukraine has history of refusing to honor agreements and to pay debts signed by even legitimate presidents.

[tllwd]

The purpose of founding the EU was to "screw" the United States, President Donald Trump said in Washington on Wednesday as he promised to slap tariffs on cars.

"The European Union was formed to screw the United States, that's the purpose of it, and they've done a good job of it," Trump told reporters at his first cabinet meeting in the White House.

Trump was commenting on his plans to impose 25% tariffs on cars and other goods. The US president objects to the EU's trade surplus with the US in goods, arguing that it's exploitative.

He said he had "made a decision" to impose tariffs that he would announce "very soon." He added, "it'll be 25%, generally speaking, and that'll be on cars and all other things." He did not specify whether the tariffs would apply solely to European imports, or worldwide imports.

"They've really taken advantage of us," he said of the EU on Wednesday. "They don't accept our cars, they don't accept essentially our farm products. They use all sorts of reasons why not, and we accept everything of them."

https://www.euractiv.com/section/politi ... s-on-cars/

[Jasin]

Ukraine has about $14 trillion worth of rare earths.

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/14/g-s1-491 ... ths-us-aid

a survey of all mineral resources in Ukraine for Forbes Ukraine in 2023 and estimated their value at $14.8 trillion — an estimate cited by the Ukrainian government as well. (Other estimates have run even higher).

So Ukraine can easily pay Trump $500 billion.

Any paper signed by Zelensky is worth nothing, Ukraine has history of refusing to honor agreements and to pay debts signed by even legitimate presidents.

That is true.

[Bobby]

It's possible that Ukraine has: yttrium, terbium, and europium -
elements that would be in your mobile phone LCD display and TV.


https://versae.com/the-most-important-m ... th-metals/

Rare earth metals have luminescent properties, making them effective in producing fluorescent tubes and LED lights. REEs like yttrium, terbium, and europium can produce different colors in light bulbs, such as red, green, and blue. Due to their luminescent properties, these metals help make LCD screens, from smartphones to large television sets.

[Bobby]

Ukraine has about $14 trillion worth of rare earths.

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/14/g-s1-491 ... ths-us-aid

a survey of all mineral resources in Ukraine for Forbes Ukraine in 2023 and estimated their value at $14.8 trillion — an estimate cited by the Ukrainian government as well. (Other estimates have run even higher).

So Ukraine can easily pay Trump $500 billion.

And now I read the exact opposite.
Ukraine has hardly any rare earths.
The rare earths are a hoax according to one author

https://www.mining.com/op-ed-unpacking- ... rths-myth/

Op-Ed: Unpacking Ukraine’s “trillion dollar” rare earths myth

Amanda Marziliano van Dyke | February 26, 2025

The best authority in the world on resources and reserves is the US Geological Survey (USGS). Ukraine does not have resources (the scientifically confirmed presence of minerals) or reserves (resources that are economically extractable). 

To my knowledge, and the knowledge of everyone in the mining industry I have asked, there are no economically relevant large scale drilled out resources or reserves in Ukraine of rare earths, graphite, or titanium. 

What they have are old Soviet survey’s that indicate the presence of trace amounts rare earth minerals, and a general line that says the entire region could contain rare earth minerals. 

What they have in mining terms is exploration targets. 1/1000 exploration targets ever becomes a mine. To get reserves, which are the only thing that can be valued, 100’s of millions in drilling investment is required. Which is why in economic terms the value of Ukraine’s economic potential is negative right now, it requires highly speculative risky investment to ever be realised. 

My understanding is that last November the Ukrainian government, desperate to maintain support found those old soviet surveys and claimed those exploration targets were reserves, did some very bad math, and ascribed a ludicrous value to them. 

So the question is, is it possible Ukraine has trillions of dollars of rare earths? It is highly unlikely. Let me show you why. 


The Times author is asserting that the value of these minerals in the Ukraine is greater than the entire value of all the mined ore in the world, which in 2024, was a little over than 2 trillion dollars (statista), and 50% of that was coal. 

In 2024 the world mined 280,000 tonnes of natural graphite worth approximately $280 million, 9.4m tonnes of titanium mineral concentrate worth approximately 3B, and 390k tonnes of rare earth concentrate worth approximately 15-19.5B, which makes the approximate extracted value of all of them combined,  circa 20B dollars, and approximately 1% of the entire value of mineral extracted value in the world.   

Which makes the idea that Ukraine even could contain
“several” trillions of dollars worth of these minerals preposterous. Realistically, if they did in fact at some point prove up 1,000 times the annual production of rare earth minerals in one spot, that are economically extractable, they would crash the price of rare earth minerals forevermore. (source: USGS and World Mining Data 2024). 

[tllwd]

As I said before rare earths in Ukraine is just a smoke screen but Ukraine has fair amount of "critical metals" amongst which is titanium essential for aviation industry.

This is world production map and amounts produced in 2019

tiprod.png

Note: Ukraine is in direct competition with Australia.

Also, if you read carefully Trump's comments on the proposed deal you see that the deal is not only about mining but also about infrastructure that includes transport and sea ports. Donald Trump is very smart businessman indeed.