US President Donald Trump said in February that he wanted Ukraine to provide rare land in exchange for financially supporting kyiv’s war effort against Russia.
The remark seems to ride part of a war strategy, known as “Victory Plan”, that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy presented to the kyiv allies, including Donald Trump last year.
Among other things, the plan proposes to achieve agreements with foreign partners to provide joint access to strategically precious resources from Ukraine.
It was not immediately clear if Trump referred to all types of critical minerals or simply rare earths. He said the United States sought to conclude an agreement with Ukraine for “their rare and other things”.
Rare earths are a group of 17 metals used to make magnets that transform power into motion for electric vehicles, mobile phones, missile systems and other electronics. There are no known substitutes.
China is the world’s largest producer in rare land and many other critical minerals.
Trump has also expressed interest in making Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark which is also on large deposits of rare land, part of the United States since his re-election.
The US Geological Survey considers that 50 minerals are critical, including several types of rare land, nickel and lithium.
Ukraine has deposits of 22 of the 34 minerals identified by the European Union as criticism, according to data from the Ministry of the Economy. This includes industrial and construction materials, ferrolyloy, precious and non -ferrous metals and some rare elements of land. Ukraine also has large coal reserves; However, most of them are now under the control of Russia in occupied territory.
Why are rare earths important?
The 17 minerals of silver rare white earths are not uncommon in the earth’s crust. But economically viable deposits are more difficult to find, and the real rarity presents itself in the complex process to separate them into materials necessary to produce permanent magnets used in a range of critical products.
China represents around 60% of the world production of rare earth mines, but its share increases to 90% of the rare earth treated and the production of the magnet.
You will find below the complex steps that rare earths must take to find themselves as magnets used in electric vehicles and wind turbines – the two main areas stimulating demand in the years to come.
Mine
The ore is first extracted from an open or underground mine, crushed and moved to a plant, generally near the mine site.
The ore contains a small percentage of rare land, but other minerals are eliminated by flotation, magnetic or electrostatic treatment to produce a concentrate of mixed rare earths which often contains 60% to 70% of rare earths.
Other operations produce a concentrate of rare earths as a by-product of mining waste or other metals such as mineral sands or iron ore.
Radioactivity
Certain types of ore, such as monazite, must undergo another step to eliminate thorium or radioactive uranium from ore, often using acid.
Separation
One of the most difficult steps is to separate the rare individual earths from each other. Technology was developed for the first time after the Second World War in the American government’s research laboratories.
Separation can be carried out using ion exchange technology. This can also be done using solvents such as ammonia, hydrochloric acids and sulfates, although certain chemicals produce toxic waste that can cause cancer.
The so -called light and rare land must go through various separation circuits where individual rare earths are extracted.
New technologies that are more respectful of the environment are under development, but they are not yet widely used.
Metals / Alloys
The separate rare earth oxides are then transformed into rare earth metals by electrolysis.
The most widely used permanent magnets combine the neodymium and the rare earth praseodymium with iron and boron, which are placed in a vacuum induction furnace to form an alloy. Small amounts of rare earth dysprosium and terbium are often added to create more heat resistance in the magnet.
Magnets
Alloy ingots are broken down and launched into an atmosphere of nitrogen and argon powder of micron size, which involves a high temperature pressure process and a sintering “before being pressed in the magnets.
