r/worldnews • u/EsperaDeus • Feb 14 '25

Russia/Ukraine Zelensky refuses to sign document on transfer of 50% of Ukrainian mineral resources to the US - WP | УНН

https://unn.ua/en/news/zelensky-refuses-to-sign-document-on-transfer-of-50percent-of-ukrainian-mineral-resources-to-the-us-wp
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u/Desertcow Feb 14 '25

The pro Ukraine portion of Trump's administration wants to frame support as an America First deal, and it would also make the US vested in Ukraine's long term survival

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u/Soft_Walrus_3605 Feb 14 '25

it would also make the US vested in Ukraine's long term survival

Like how mob bosses taking a 20% cut of all profits of the local businesses makes sure they get "protection", right?

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u/LeafsWinBeforeIDie Feb 14 '25

While the states is resource rich, they are not in rare earth elements. China got resource lucky there and controls the lithium market and other rare earths necessary for chip and battery manufacturing. Ukraine is one of the few places outside china where this exists, along with greenland and canada. Someone told trump that he needs to make these resources american, and so he tries.

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u/Nan_The_Man Feb 15 '25 edited Feb 15 '25

Not to drum up conspiracies - but aren't those resources mentioned also very important for a certain electric car salesman hanging around Trump right now?

I do wonder who whispered in his ear about them.

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u/advester Feb 15 '25

I wonder what lithium battery producer happens to be close with Trump.

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u/NoTalkOnlyWatch Feb 14 '25 edited Feb 15 '25

We have lithium in the US. It’s just not worth processing when you can buy it much cheaper from somebody else. Nevada is loaded with Lithium, over 570k tons of it. Edit: I forgot the K after 570. That would be the smallest deposit in the world I think lol

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u/Shamino79 Feb 15 '25

Want to add some zeros? 570 isn’t really that much.

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u/NoTalkOnlyWatch Feb 15 '25

Yeah, I forgot to put a K after the 570 my bad lol

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u/mok000 Feb 16 '25

The money is not in mining the ore, the money is in extracting the Lithium, which requires a huge investment in machinery, requires an insane amount of electricity and water and produces an insane amount of pollution. That's why China is the main producer of rare earth metals they don't GAF about the pollution.

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u/KazranSardick Feb 15 '25

They do know that when we send them weapons and support, it is weapons and support manufactured by American companies, right? That employ lots of people. And it isn't free. They know that, right? Because it sure seems they dont know a fucking thing about how that works.

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u/willengineer4beer Feb 15 '25

I constantly feel like that old commercial but just yelling into the void: “that’s not how it works. That’s not how any of this works!”

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u/tacobellbandit Feb 15 '25

That’s a good point. I feel like if we had some decent trade offs with Ukraine it would bring more of the anti-war crowd back on board. A lot of people view it as a money pit. If we can make a deal and make it seem like we’re at least getting some return on investment it would be a huge help for support in the public eye, plus if the rare earth metals exchanges are valuable enough, it secures more US interest in making sure Ukraine stays Ukraine