Potential US-Russia cooperation on rare earth metals after conflict settlement
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday that the framework for cooperation between Russia and the United States, including in rare earth metals, should be established, though quick results are not expected, as the U.S. remains focused on securing a settlement in Ukraine, according to TASS news agency.
“It seems to me that even now we need to outline the range of possible topics for cooperation, but we should not expect any quick results in this area right now,” Peskov said in an interview with television host Pavel Zarubin for Rossiya-1 TV channel.
Answering a question about possible cooperation on rare earth metals, the Kremlin representative pointed to the US position, which prioritizes finding “a settlement around Ukraine, then the economy.”
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Moscow would be open to cooperating with any foreign partners in the rare earths industry, including the U.S., as it is a capital-intensive venture. The Federal Agency for Mineral Resources reported that Russia ranks second in the world in terms of rare earth reserves.
U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed particular interest in the development and extraction of rare earth metals, which are crucial for modern microelectronics and high technology.
President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met in Washington on Friday to oversee the sealing of a minerals deal, but the leaders engaged in an angry exchange of words before the world’s media and left the agreement unsigned.
However, a senior U.S. official told Reuters afterwards that Trump had not ruled out a deal, but not until Ukraine was ready to have a constructive conversation.
Ukraine does not produce any rare earths, but according to Ukraine’s Institute of Geology, it possesses large deposits of such minerals, including lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, and yttrium.
According to Reuters, however, any deal by Trump to access Ukraine’s critical minerals won’t get the United States anywhere close to challenging China’s sizeable advantage in those key minerals, while he is in power.
“Yes, it’s a counter to China, but you’ve still got the problem of where the minerals are going to be processed and how long it’s going to take,” said Julian Kettle, Vice Chair Metals and Mining at natural resources consultancy Wood Mackenzie.
“You can expand production at existing mines. But when it comes to new frontier development, discovery to delivery of material could take up to 10 years.”
China is already the world’s third-largest lithium producer, after Australia and Chile. It is also the world’s top producer of rare earth elements, which include neodymium used to make strong, light, powerful, and permanent magnets used in defence equipment.
