What are rare earth minerals? Why does US President Trump want Ukraine’s?
The idea of granting the United States access to these valuable minerals came from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky himself, who presented it to Trump in September 2024 as part of the victory plan and was seen as a way to secure American support for kyiv in the war against Russia. Since taking office, Trump has shown interest in minerals, but the security guarantees Ukraine seeks remain unclear.
"Rare earths" is a collective term for 17 chemically similar elements that are widely used in modern technology and industry. These elements are crucial for the manufacture of smartphones, computers and medical equipment, among others.
These are scandium (Sc), yttrium (Y), lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), promethium (Pm), samarium (Sm), europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), holmium (Ho), erbium (Er), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb) and lutetium (Lu).
These minerals are called "rare" because it is very rare to find them in a pure state, although there are deposits of some of them around the world. However, rare earths are often found alongside radioactive elements such as thorium and uranium, and separating them requires many toxic chemicals, making the extraction process sometimes difficult and expensive.
The idea of granting the United States access to these valuable minerals came from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky himself, who presented it to Trump in September 2024 as part of the victory plan and was seen as a way to secure American support for kyiv in the war against Russia.
Since taking office, Trump has shown interest in minerals, but the security guarantees Ukraine seeks remain unclear.
"I told (Ukraine) I want about $500 billion worth of rare earths, and they basically agreed to do it," Trump told Fox News reporter Bret Baier on February 10.
Trump argued that the minerals should be exchanged for continued U.S. support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, but gave no indication he wanted to commit to defending that country.
"This is not a serious conversation," Zelensky said, rejecting the proposal. "I cannot sell our state." Since then, relations between the two governments have been tense, but recently they seem to have eased, which has made possible the progress of these negotiations, the final terms of which have not yet been defined.
What minerals does Ukraine have?
Ukraine possesses 21 of the 30 substances that the European Union (EU) defines as "critical raw materials", which represents about 5% of the world's reserves.
Many of the areas containing these elements are located south of the so-called Ukrainian Shield, mainly under the Sea of Azov. Most of these territories are currently occupied by Russia. However, there are still promising projects in the Central Buzh region, as well as in the Kyiv, Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr regions.
Experts say that although several hundred promising geological sites have been identified, only a few of them could be developed into deposits if their exploitation is considered economically viable.
"The estimates that have been published are very rough," says Adam Webb, head of battery raw materials at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.
"Much more work is needed to demonstrate that these mineral deposits can be converted into economic reserves."
Zone under Russian military control in Ukraine
As for other important Ukrainian mineral resources, about 70% of them are located, according to Forbes Ukraine, in the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Luhansk regions. Many of them are located in territories invaded and still occupied by Russia. In addition to rare earth minerals, Ukraine also possesses so-called essential minerals, such as lithium. According to the Ukrainian government, the country has some 450,000 tonnes of lithium reserves, which are not being exploited, although there are plans to start doing so.
Russia has seized at least two lithium deposits: Shevchenkivske in the Donetsk region and the Kruta Balka deposit complex in the Berdyansk region. The lithium deposits in the Kirovohrad region remain under Ukrainian control.
Why does Trump want these minerals?
The US interest in controlling the production of rare earths and possibly essential minerals is largely due to competition with China, which currently dominates the global supply. In recent decades, China has emerged as a leader in both the extraction and processing of rare earth minerals, accounting for 60-70% of global production and nearly 90% of processing capacity.
The US dependence on China in this regard worries the Trump administration, both in terms of national security and the economy. These materials are needed for highly sophisticated technologies, from electric cars to military equipment.