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The mineral wealth of Ukraine has played a major role in the negotiations between the U.S. and Ukraine as they work on details for an agreement to cease fire in Ukraine’s conflict with Russia.
On March 11, 2025, after a difficult start in the negotiations, U.S. officials and Ukrainian officials announced a deal. After a rocky start to the negotiations, officials from both countries announced an agreement on March 11, 2025.
In the initial statement from Ukraine, it was stated that the critical minerals will also “offset costs of American assistance.” However, this line has been removed from the joint declaration. The next step would be to get Russia to agree on a ceasefire.
It’s clear that Ukraine is rich in critical minerals and that its resources are essential for the country’s post-war reconstruction. What exactly are these resources, and how plentiful and accessible is it?
War has greatly limited the availability of data on Ukraine’s resources. As a geoscientist who has experience in resource assessment, I’ve read technical reports, some of which are behind paywalls to better understand the issues. What we currently know.
Minerals from Ukraine fuel the military and industries
The mineral wealth of Ukraine is concentrated in just two provinces. This belt, also known as “Ukrainian Shield”, runs through the middle of Ukraine, running from northwest to southeast. The rocks are metamorphic, granitic and very old.
Minerals are concentrated at localities and in some large regions due to fault movements and volcanic activity that have lasted for billions of years.
In a second province near the border of Ukraine with Russia, in the east there is a rift valley known as Dnipro-Donets depression. The sedimentary rock is rich in coal, natural gas and oil.
Mineral resources of Ukraine are critical.
Ukrainian Geological Survey
Both areas were supplying the Soviet Union’s industrialization and its military with material before Ukraine gained independence in 1991. In the southeast where coal, iron and manganese are abundant, a massive steelmaking industry grew.
In the early 2000s, Ukraine became a major producer and exporter for these minerals and others. The country also produces uranium for use in nuclear energy.
The Soviets and Ukrainians also identified undeveloped deposits of rare earths and lithium.
Technical reports indicate that the assessment of some critical minerals is based on old geologic data. They also suggest that due to war many mines have been inactive and are using older technology.
This suggests that foreign investments in peacetime could increase critical mineral production and these minerals would be worth even more than they are today for whoever controls them.
Why is the US so interested?
The term critical minerals is used to describe resources which are vital to national or economic security, and are subject to risks of supply. These minerals are used to make military equipment, computer batteries, and other products.
The U.S. Geological Survey created a list of critical minerals. It shows that Ukraine is rich in more than a dozen.
The majority are located in the Ukrainian Shield. Approximately 20% of Ukraine’s possible total reserves are currently in Russian-occupied areas.
In Zavallya in Ukraine, graphite can be mined at a 120-meter deep quarry.
Arsen Dodzaiev/Anadolu through Getty Images
Ukraine mines critical minerals
Manganese, graphite and titanium are three minerals that Ukraine is particularly rich in. The U.S. imports between 80% to 100% of the demand for these minerals.
The manganese element is essential in the production of steel and batteries. Ukraine has the biggest reserves of manganese in the world, estimated at 2.4 million tons. The deposits, however, are low-grade – only 11% to 35 % of the mined rock is manganese. It tends to be expensive to process and use a large amount of materials.
Graphite is used for battery electrodes, as well as in a wide range of other industrial uses. Graphite is found in the ore deposits located on the Ukrainian Shield in the northwestern and south central portions. There are at least six known deposits, totaling 343,000,000 tons ore and 18,6,000,000 tons graphite. This is the biggest graphite source in Europe, and fifth-largest globally.
In Ukraine there are 28 different locations where titanium, an important metal in aerospace, ship, and missile technologies, can be found. It is both present as hard rock deposits and as sand and gravel. Estimates of the size of the reserve are usually in the millions of tonnes.
On February 28, 2025 during the Russian invasion, workers operate machines at a titanium open-pit mine in Zhytomyr.
Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images
Other minerals, which are important for semiconductors and batteries but are not as abundant in Ukraine are also very valuable. Zinc is found in deposits along with lead, gold silver, and copper. Zinc and lignite coal are both by-products from other ore – gallium for zinc, germanium for lignite. Ultramafic rocks contain nickel and cobalt, but the latter is more common.
In early 2025 there were no figures available for Ukraine’s reserve of these elements, except for zinc. Its estimated reserves are around 6.1 millions tons. This puts Ukraine in the top 10 countries for zinc.
Minerals that are critical but not being mined yet
Three other critical minerals, such as rare earth metals, scandium, and lithium, are also found in significant quantities by geologists. These include:
As of the beginning of 2025, none of them had been extracted commercially. However, a deposit of lithium had been granted a license for extraction.
Three sites on the Ukrainian Shield in south-central Ukraine and southeast Ukraine are the most likely to have large lithium deposits, with ore grades ranging from good to moderate. The exact amount of lithium in these reserves is not known, but reports indicate that it could be between 160 million tons ore and 1,6 million to 3,000,000 tons of lithium dioxide. The Ukraine would be among the five top nations in terms of lithium if it could recover most or all this material profitably.
These reserves also contain smaller quantities of tantalum, which is also useful in alloys for steel and in technology. The majority of Ukraine’s Lithium occurs in the form petalite. This mineral is more costly to process than spodumene.
In Ukraine, rare earth elements are found in association with uranium and volcanic sites in the southern-central part of the Ukrainian Shield. They have not been exploited, but sampling indicates that some sites are commercially viable, while others appear to be less so.
Many mining companies in the country continue to operate despite the war. They extract resources like titanium, beryllium, and graphite.
Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images
These areas contain varying quantities of rare earth elements, such as neodymium. terbium, dysprosium, and praseodymium. All are in demand to make superior magnets. These deposits also contain other critical minerals, including zirconium tantalum, and niobium in unknown but possibly significant quantities.
Scandium is a product of titanium ore processing. It’s used to make aluminum alloys and aerospace components. Ukraine’s scandium has not been sufficiently studied to assess its commercial potential. The world’s production is expected to increase rapidly, from 30-40 tons annually.
Mineral future of Ukraine
Ukraine has a wealth of resources. To extract them, however, will take roads, railways, electricity, mining, and processing technologies, as well as investment, technical knowledge, environmental concerns, and above all the cessation in military conflict.
These are the real determinants for Ukraine’s future in mining.
The agreement announced has been added to this article originally published on March 11, 2025.
