Interestingly , NONE of the elements specifically named are literally (scientifically) “Rare Earth Minerals”; They may be uncommon to find in commercial quantities, but they aren’t “Rare Earth Minerals.
I also got kind of a kick out of one of the image descriptors calling a pile of chunks of sandstone “Geologic Rock”....
I noticed that as well. That list are not REE and can be found many places.
As for natgas, no, it’s just not there. Ukraine’s total endowment of nat gas is about 1.1 trillion cubic meters.
In the world of oil and gas, people read billion and trillion and imagine it is infinite. Truth is . . . global consumption of nat gas is 4 trillion cubic meters per year.
So if you could get Ukraine’s gas to flow fast enough, you’d have 3 months of global supply and then it is empty. Forever.
Pretty sure the gas was alleged to be around Kharkiv. But no matter. There’s not enough to have generated interest by Gazprom for the decades that Ukraine was Russia friendly.
Production from there is about 20 billion cubic meters/year, which is approximately Ukraine consumption. Again don’t get excited by billion and trillion numbers. US consumption (mostly consumption, a small portion exported) is 1.1 trillion cubic meters/yr. See how 20 billion is nothing and not worth Gazprom’s time?