Ukraine tries to interest American businesses in its minerals

Ukraine and the US seek to encourage American businesses to enter the Ukrainian market and invest into its mining and processing industries.

Source: press service of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine

Details: The governments of Ukraine and the US consider the possibility of deepening the cooperation in the critical materials sector in order to encourage American businesses to invest into Ukraine’s mining and processing of minerals.

The implementation of joint investment projects was on the agenda of the meeting between the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and the US delegation on 12 August.

"The critical materials sector is one of the sectors with a big potential for development. Ukraine is one of the richest countries in Europe in terms of minerals, so the Ukrainian government is interested in cooperation with the US in the sector of critical materials," said Oleksii Sobolev, First Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine.

The ministry reports that Ukraine boasts 22 types of minerals out of the 34 defined as critical by the EU. Ukraine is in the top-10 of countries-manufacturers of titanium, zirconium, graphite and manganese.

About 5% of world stocks of raw materials, which the US and the EU need for the production of semiconductors and hi-tech products, is located in Ukraine.

Ukraine ranks second in the world in the production of gallium after China, which banned the delivery of this material to the US and Germany, and fifth in the production of germanium after China, Russia, the US and Japan.

The State Geology and Subsoil Service of Ukraine reports that Ukraine is in the top-five of the countries with the biggest reserves of graphite. As of now there are six known graphite deposits in Ukraine but only one is being used – a part of the Zavallia deposit located in Kirovohrad Oblast.

Background:

• The US hopes to weaken China’s monopoly on vital minerals with the help of Kazakhstan.
• The Beholder Ukrainian start-up, which looks for minerals using the so-called artificial intelligence (AI), engaged $940,000 of investments from the InnoEnergy European fund.

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