Key Facts

• Ukraine is home to substantial amounts of key minerals.
• Around 5% of the world's critical raw materials, including graphite, titanium, lithium, beryllium, uranium, copper, lead, zinc, silver, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and rare earth metals, are found in Ukraine.
• Some of Ukraine's mineral deposits have been taken over by Russia, worth approximately $350 billion (£277 billion).
• Canada-based geopolitical risk consultancy SecDev reported in 2022 that Russia had occupied 63% of Ukrainian coal mines and half of its manganese, caesium, tantalum, and rare earth deposits.
• The US wants access to Ukraine's minerals to lessen its reliance on China, which controls 75% of the world's rare earth deposits.
• China has increased restrictions on exporting some of its rare earth minerals to the US, contributing to an ongoing trade war between the two countries.
• The US sees critical minerals as fundamental to the 21st-century economy, because they're necessary for renewable energy, military applications, and industrial infrastructure.