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#38 | Posted by brass30 at 2025-02-25 10:06 PM
So break this down for me. ... Ukraine is giving something, I assume they get what in return? And is Ukraine simply giving up the land lost in the war?
It's a nothingburger, PR opportunity for Trump. No one is getting anything of real value, it's MOU - Ukraine is not getting a defense guarantee and is only giving "access" to REE mining in the areas that are now occupied by Russia - just as agreements with financial firms like BlackRock and JPM and several E&P companies to develop gas fields and help post-war reconstruction, signed before and after Russian invasion.
Just another Trump's Apprentice s**tshow to stroke his ego, after his opportunistic extortion offer bombed ("Can't blame a guy for trying, right?") He will sell it as a "great win and looking after the American people."
Putin is selling Trump the same "access" to the same REEs in "new territories":
www.newsweek.com - Map Shows Ukraine's Rare Earth Minerals That Putin Wants To Sell to Trump (!)
www.newsweek.com - Ukraine Defies Trump As Zelensky Unanimously Backed
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#37 | Posted by Corky at 2025-02-25 10:05 PM
In the news, as it turns out, there's something else going on here. The 'valuable minerals' were said to be valuable by Russian studies decades ago using antiquated techniques. Also, experts say it could take that long again to extract enough material to make it worthwhile.
REEs are not rare. www.usgs.gov - USGS | Rare Earths Statistics and Information
www.usitc.gov - Recovering Rare Earth Elements from E-Waste: Potential Impacts on NdFeB Magnet Supply Chains - October 2024 {PDF, 41 pg}
With BEVs and "renewable energy" losing their popularity (b/c batteries are expensive and don't "save the planet" from "climate change," among many other issues) the need for and prices of many REEs have been dropping almost as fast as the price of Bitcoin, DJT, $TRUMP and $MELANIA.
e.g., REE-adjacent Li: carboncredits.com - The Lithium Paradox: Price Plummet, Supply Surge, and Demand Dip? - September 16, 2024
China is dominant in production, but from 2019 to 2022 the US was the world's largest global exporter of REEs.
More valuable than actual supply and extraction is the processing / separation of REEs from ore (like oil refineries for crude) where China has distinct advantage because it invested in that.
KoBold Metals, a company funded in part by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, has been looking for suitable new REE mining locations in Greenland for 2 years, but is currently more interested in African locations. Large potential deposits have been recently found in Wyoming, Canada, Norway...
According to a 2022 report, Ukraine has ~5% of the world's mineral resources, including 22 of the 34 "critical" - lanthanum, cerium and erbium, etc. - and has ~500K tons of lithium reserves, and 20% of the world's graphite, used in nuclear plants. Russia currently controls about 20% of Ukraine where possibly 40% of metal resources are located.
public.flourish.studio - World's map of known mineral deposits (JPG)
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The key is here:
FTA: |------- Trump's fascination with autocrats generally and Putin in particular has been well documented for more than a decade. In 2013, he posted on social media that his hosting of a beauty pageant in Russia might win him Putin's approval.
"Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow - if so, will he become my new best friend?" he wrote.
That was followed by years of attempts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow - an effort that continued straight through his first run for president in 2016, it came out later. Trump asked for Russian help to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton that year, and then knowingly used the hacked and stolen emails that Russian spies released during the final month of the presidential campaign.
Then, as both special counsel Robert Mueller and the Senate Intelligence Committee investigated Russia's role in his victory, Trump eagerly bought into a conspiracy theory concocted by Russian operatives that - contrary to the U.S. intelligence assessment that Russia helped Trump win in 2016 - it was actually Ukraine that had tried to help Clinton win.
Trump sent his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to Ukraine to collect evidence - an effort that ultimately led to Trump's attempt to extort Zelenskyy into announcing an investigation into the Democrat he most feared in the 2020 election, Joe Biden, using U.S. military aid as leverage. Trump was ultimately impeached for that act, but the Republican-led Senate declined to remove him from office.
Trump's personal antagonism toward Zelenskyy, perhaps stemming from that episode, seems to have continued unabated...
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To paraphrase Corleone, for Trump "It's not just 'business,' it's personal."
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