{"id":46059,"date":"2025-05-02T17:27:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T11:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=46059"},"modified":"2025-05-15T17:28:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T11:58:18","slug":"ukraines-critical-minerals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/ukraines-critical-minerals\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine\u2019s Critical Minerals"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Ukraine\u2019s Critical Minerals Latest News<\/h2>\n<p>Recently, the U.S. and Ukraine signed a strategic minerals deal granting preferential U.S. access to Ukrainian mineral projects and establishing a joint investment fund for Ukraine\u2019s reconstruction.<\/p>\n<h2>What are Critical Minerals and Rare Earths?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Rare Earth Elements (REEs)<\/strong>\u00a0are a group of\u00a0<strong>17 chemically similar metals<\/strong>\u00a0essential for making\u00a0<strong>permanent magnets<\/strong>\u00a0used in\u00a0<strong>electric vehicles (EVs), smartphones, missile systems, and wind turbines<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)<\/strong>\u00a0lists\u00a0<strong>50 minerals<\/strong>\u00a0as\u00a0<strong>\u201ccritical\u201d<\/strong>, including\u00a0<strong>lithium, nickel, cobalt, and rare earths<\/strong>, due to their vital role in\u00a0<strong>defence, aerospace, green energy, and electronics<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>These minerals have\u00a0<strong>no commercially viable substitutes<\/strong>, making their supply chain\u00a0<strong>strategically important<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Ukraine\u2019s Mineral Wealth<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Ukraine has\u00a0<strong>22 of the 34 minerals<\/strong>\u00a0classified as\u00a0<strong>critical by the European Union (EU)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Major critical minerals in Ukraine include:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Rare earth elements<\/strong>\u00a0such as\u00a0<strong>lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, erbium, yttrium<\/strong>, and\u00a0<strong>scandium<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lithium<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>nickel<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>manganese<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>beryllium<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>gallium<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>zirconium<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>graphite<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>apatite<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>fluorite<\/strong>, and\u00a0<strong>titanium<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Graphite reserves<\/strong>\u00a0in Ukraine account for approximately\u00a0<strong>20% of global resources<\/strong>, crucial for\u00a0<strong>EV batteries<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>nuclear reactors<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lithium reserves<\/strong>\u00a0are estimated at\u00a0<strong>500,000 metric tonnes<\/strong>, one of the largest in Europe. Key lithium areas include the\u00a0<strong>central, eastern, and southeastern regions<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Titanium<\/strong>\u00a0is concentrated in the\u00a0<strong>northwestern and central regions<\/strong>\u00a0and is used in the\u00a0<strong>aerospace and defence<\/strong>\u00a0sectors.<\/li>\n<li><strong>China dominates global rare earth production<\/strong>, making Ukraine a\u00a0<strong>strategically attractive alternative supplier<\/strong>\u00a0for Western economies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/business\/what-are-ukraines-critical-minerals-and-what-do-we-know-about-the-deal-with-us\/article69521157.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Discover how Rare Earth Elements (REEs), 17 vital metals, power EVs, smartphones, missile systems, and wind turbines through high-performance permanent magnets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":46060,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[250,251],"class_list":{"0":"post-46059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-ukraines-critical-minerals","9":"tag-ukraines-critical-minerals-upsc","10":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}