The following translation is cobbled together from Ukrainian- and Russian-language reports from a number of Ukrainian news organizations.
Ukraine has declassified a limited list of minerals, including critical minerals, which was a relic from Soviet times, according to Svitlana Hrynchuk, Ukraine’s Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources.
“The classification has been removed, and we are now completing all the bureaucratic procedures so that we can fully continue to work with investors and with businesses without this barrier,” she said at the “Forum of Government and Business: From Dialogue to Partnership.”
Hrynchuk noted that with the help of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, active work is also underway to digitize the geological data, because a huge amount of it is on paper.
“We are currently conducting additional negotiations with DFC [Development Finance Corporation] in order to expand this project. We have digitized 6,000 geological reports. We are continuing now: literally a week ago, an agreement was signed on the second stage, and the next 60,000 books with geological data will be digitized in the near future,” the minister noted.
She also recalled that, together with the Ministry of Economy, national lists of such mineral resources have been drawn up based on the lists of strategic and critical raw materials defined in the European Act on Critical Raw Materials, the US Defense Production Act, and US President Trump’s Executive Order.
“We have also prepared lists of minerals, and transactions for these minerals will be implemented through auctions or through production sharing agreements. I really hope that in the next two weeks we will receive a decision from the government on these very important documents,” Hrynchuk said.
The Minister added that since last autumn, intensive work has also been underway with geological services in various countries – European and American – to improve the quality and accessibility of geological data in Ukraine. For example, a 3D model of the Zavalievsky graphite deposit was developed jointly with the French geological service.
Per to Security Service of Ukraine Order No. 207, dated May 29 of this year, the only mineral resource whose reserves and mining capabilities are classified is uranium, whereas previously similar data were also classified regarding gold, platinum, diamonds, lithium, titanium, palladium, zirconium, iridium, etc.
What we know about the agreement with the US on minerals
Overnight on April 30-May 1, Ukraine and the United States signed an agreement to create a joint Investment Recovery Fund with equal participation of both parties.
It is worth noting that on May 8, the Verkhovna Rada ratified the agreement on minerals that Ukraine and the United States of America recently signed. It establishes the political parameters for cooperation between the two governments on the development of mineral resources, the sale of minerals, and American aid, including military aid, that Ukraine will receive in the future. The agreement between Ukraine and the United States covers 57 types of minerals.
On May 12, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law ratifying the agreement between the governments of Ukraine and the United States on rare earth metals. And on May 23, the American-Ukrainian Investment Fund was launched.
Ukraine has significant deposits of rare earth metals, which are of great importance for modern technologies. The main deposits are concentrated in the Zhitomir and Cherkasy Oblasts and the Eastern Azov region.
In addition, the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine contain deposits of critical materials worth about $350 billion. It is reported that up to 20% of Ukraine’s mineral resources, including about half of its rare earth deposits, are under Russian occupation.
Translating History 