Ukrainian media invite experts to comment on the Subsoil Agreement less often than they invite rare earth metals. Mostly political observers, bloggers without relevant knowledge and education, and almost clowns from traveling circuses are invited to the air. And they hardly ever take into account the opinions of specialists – geologists and scientists who are directly involved in the extraction and processing of minerals .
Recently, UkrainianExpertsTalks invited Yuriy Khokha, a specialized scientist , Doctor of Geology, Senior Researcher at the Institute of Geology and Geochemistry of Combustible Minerals of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, to explain the details of the scandalous Agreement on Ukrainian Subsoil.
The Subsoil Agreement: Is It a Betrayal or a Victory?
What are the risks, opportunities, and prospects of the recent agreement on Ukrainian subsoil signed with Donald Trump?
What are the details of the “mineral deal” that could be the devil’s bane and will Ukraine be left with a dug-up wasteland?
What are Ukraine’s opportunities for independent extraction and development of mineral resources?
Will the “mineral deal” with the US be a partnership or a robbery?
Can Ukraine manage on its own oil and gas reserves without the need to export from abroad, and under what conditions?
These questions have finally been answered by a specialist who is directly involved in the extraction and processing of minerals and knows about it not from bloggers on Facebook and YouTube.
It is worth noting that the professional and well-reasoned opinion of a doctor of geological sciences will greatly surprise the common Facebook users who are used to reading only one-line memes from professors and watching populist videos from bloggers without a degree.
And if you listen to the opinion of experts, geologists, there is no reason to shout about betrayal, robbery, and that Ukraine will remain a “dug-up wasteland.”
In fact, Ukraine doesn’t have as many minerals as social media users think, mistakenly believing that our subsoil can be so interesting to global corporations. In terms of resources, Ukraine is a kind of European average, ” says Yuriy Khokha, a doctor of geological sciences.
Ukraine has oil and gas in moderate quantities. We are by no means self-sufficient in hydrocarbons, as populists claim, messing with the minds of naive social media users.
There is no risk of a dug-up wasteland. It would arise if Ukraine had a full processing cycle: mining, enrichment, hydrometallurgy, purification and concentration. But we do not have such a developed industrial base. And it would take decades to establish such a huge production cycle in Ukraine. If someone is really interested in our resources, only the first two stages are possible: mining and enrichment. Because it is not profitable to transport ore with 0.5% of useful substance.
It is significant that geologists see only opportunities in the Subsoil Agreement.
Ukraine’s current mineral and rare earth deposits were discovered in the last century. And there is almost no production of them. With few exceptions, Ukraine is practically not mining rare earth metals at the moment. A significant part of the Soviet industrial base for processing rare earth metals has been lost, and a new one would require enormous funds and many years.
Mining and processing of zirconium, hafnium, and myobium existed in the Dnipro region. In particular, the Prydniprovsky Metallurgical Plant, which produced platinum, which is used in catalysts for the production of high-octane gasoline. Today, this plant is bankrupt.
“Before the Subsoil Agreement was signed, no one wrote about rare earth metals in Ukraine. And now they started shouting that they want to rob us. How can you steal something you don’t have? If someone comes and starts mining, we will win the lottery. We will receive money that we can invest in science, education, and production,” says Yuriy Khokha, Doctor of Geological Sciences and member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Moreover, if someone were to start new production in Ukraine, it would take years to determine reserves and cultivate the deposits. “I would welcome with both hands the arrival of large companies in Ukraine that are engaged in real mining and processing,” says Yuriy Khokha.
However, there are doubts that this will happen in the near future due to geopolitical factors, primarily the war and the proximity of many fields to the line of contact with the Russians.
And secondly, geologist Yuriy Khokha believes that deposits in Ukraine are small. It is more profitable for corporations to mine in other countries in deposits that are more accessible, by open-pit mining, with a higher proportion of elements.
The Subsoil Agreement is not the Budapest Memorandum 2.0 at all. Not everything is actually as sad as the zradophiles make it out to be. In addition, there will be another more extensive document that will specify the conditions of extraction from Ukrainian subsoil.
After all, all rare earth metal mining takes a long time. Even oil fields take years to develop, although it is a simpler process than mining rare earth metals. “There are no risks, because there is nothing to take them from,” says scientist Yuriy Khokha.
Ukraine hardly mines these metals on its own. Most of the companies that used to do this, except for titanium, went bankrupt. In addition, we have partially lost the production of nitric and sulfuric acids. Without them, you cannot process and separate rare earth metals. Ukrainian deposits are not all mined by open pit mining. A significant part of them require shaft mining, which is very time-consuming and expensive, involving sinking a shaft and a lot of complex work.
“There is nothing to loot yet. The theory of looting should be rejected immediately. Although it will definitely rise before the elections. At the moment, the agreement on subsoil, although it is general, looks pretty decent,” the geologist believes.
Therefore, geologists do not dispel the betrayal of the Agreement on Ukrainian subsoil, but see it as an investment in the Ukrainian industry, which today does not have the ability to earn money from these subsoil resources and needs investors.
Interview with Ukrainian Experts Talks. Yuriy Khokha: Subsoil Agreement and Prospects for Ukrainian Science.
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