Posted on 03/01/2025 10:33:22 PM PST by blueplum
...Is the U.S. about to come into a windfall? We spoke to Laura Lewis, a university distinguished professor of chemical and mechanical engineering at Northeastern, who studies critical minerals and their applications.
Her comments have been edited for brevity and clarity...
...What about rare earths? Does Ukraine have them? The evidence for Ukraine having rare earths at all is derived from reports that are at least 50 years old that were conducted by Russia.
There really is no significant evidence that Ukraine has them. If they do, and they say that they're going to now develop this resource, it would require creating a mine, and the mine could take 15–20 years to build. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
Canada, South America, Australia, Congo, Brazil, Chile, etc etc all have the rare earths the US seeks. Most of these countries either have existing mines or mines under development. Since Ukraine's gas and oil reserves are outside the minerals agreement, Trump has, in effect, offered a gift horse to Ukraine in the form of 10-20 years of development and employment opportunities.
Z stated on Feb 25th he ".... won't sign natural resource deal that 'will be paid by 10 generations of Ukrainians' 10 generations
stating the same day he owes the US nothing, since the monies under Biden were a grant, not a loan: I am not ready to recognize even 100 billion, because a grant is not a debt. I agreed on this with Biden. But this is the deal, that it is a grant. We do not recognize that it is a debt," Zelensky summarized. grant
That would be interesting if it was all a bluff to extract more money from the US.
Didn’t Conspiracy Theorists beat experts 33-0?
Typically if you have coal, there is also just about every mineral known to man.
It’s just a question of what fraction and if it is commercially viable.
15 to 20 years to build a mine???
So Ukraine has nothing to offer other than gangsters—no better than the Russian gangsters. Wash our hands of the whole thing and walk away.
The US screwed the pooch on this over the decades trying to play the Great Game—but the US was never built for that game, it was to be played between the English, the French and the Russians...
This is a professor with no real world experience, sitting behind a desk and hates Trump.
She will say anything to make Trump look stupid.
Trump would not negotiate if there were no rare earth minerals in Ukraine.
Wrong.
Ukriane offered the blood of its youth.
Zelensky had considered negotiating with Russia, but American Neocons urged him to fight. Neocons hoped to bleed and weaken Russia with the blood of Ukraine.
Ukrainians, and Russians, are fine people. They are the unfortunate pawns of their governments, and the foreign governments that support them (the American government included).
But now Trump is president!
Doesn't change the fact that America shares guilt for the carnage, which could have ended much sooner but for our Neocons' meddling.
Write off any potential monetary losses via Bidens era and hand them over completely to Europe as they wish for. They are and forever will be a corrupt welfare nation. ...whose leadership always use and abuse the International community and their citizens to survive from one conflict to another as their history clearly shows.
France was already cutting a deal with Zelensky in Oct. and other European nations have also established their piece of the pie. Let them have it and all the profound headaches they'll get in return.
Thanks for posting this. I’ve been posting about this very thing, but only in replies here. For example:
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4301305/posts?page=17#17
You’ll find more links to other sources and experts in the field saying this in my posts.
You can mine for Rare Earth Materials just about anywhere on Earth. They are RARE in that they occur in such a low percentage vs. the amount of material processed. It’s a costly and time consuming task requiring massive amounts of land, earth moving equipment, plumbing and water supply, settlement pools, and lots of time. The only reason it is done is because we need those minerals so we pay, and the people mining it don’t make quick/massive profit off the process.
So, the Ukraine REM issue is just a political bargaining tool that can be abandoned easily. If there was a resource that could generate huge profits in Ukraine, somebody would already have done it. The report that Ukraine has REMS , even if it had declared a location to have a higher abundance than normal came out a long time ago.
If it was such a good deal, why has no one ever tried to mine for it in Ukraine ?
So don’t be concerned about this Rare Earth Issue. It’s a pawn in a game of chess.
More links, including experts with real world experience:
https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-titanium-minerals-us-deal-d99cf34936b9301c4fcee038fc6d9656
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya9WKaveRXU
Also, Trump himself said of the minerals “Who knows how much they’re worth? Maybe they’re not worth anything.” This was after Munich.
It was odd. First he talked them up, then made that remark, then talked them up again. Some kind of game was being played.
Good post. There is a site producing scandium in the Zaporizhzhia area, but that’s about it.
She is nice looking.
I suggested that the moment all the trillion dollar natural resource estimates started showing up.
BEFORE Putin attacked, Ukraine was literally the poorest and least productive country in Europe.
The reason for the “minerals deal” is to provide Ukraine with a non military security guarantee first and minerals second. It will many years before any rare earth minerals development pay off.
It is called negotiating.
Well if I am reading the room correctly, Z does not want to be on the hook for the cost of the war. AND he doesn’t want to be on the hook for paying for ‘security’ either. He just want the United States and Europe to fight his battle for free and out of fear.
Someone said this all feels more like a Vietnam entanglement, the more this simmers...it feels more like pre- Hitler Weimar setup when Germany couldn’t pay back their war debts.
Based on Zelinsky’s refusal to sign the minerals deal...he doesn’t actually have them and he knows it. If they were there in any substantial level Russia/China would already have them. Old reports from Russia? What were Ukraine’s own reports regarding this national asset before the war?
Well, if you read my comment, that is what I said—The US got caught up in trying to play the Great Game....
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