Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pored over a once-classified map of vast deposits of rare earths and other critical minerals during an interview with Reuters on Friday (February 7), part of a push to appeal to Donald Trump's penchant for a deal.

The U.S. president, whose administration is pressing for a rapid end to Ukraine's war with Russia, said on Monday (February 3) he wanted Ukraine to supply the U.S. with rare earths and other minerals in return for financially supporting its war effort.

Ukraine floated the idea of opening its critical minerals to investment by allies last autumn, as it presented a "victory plan" that sought to put it in the strongest position for talks and force Moscow to the table.

Zelenskiy said less than 20% of Ukraine's mineral resources, including about half its rare earth deposits, were under Russian occupation.

Rare earths are important in the manufacture of high-performance magnets, electric motors and consumer electronics; Zelenskiy said Moscow could open those resources to its allies North Korea and Iran, both sworn U.S. enemies.

Russian troops have been gaining ground in the east for months, throwing huge resources into an unrelenting offensive while Kyiv's much smaller army grapples with a shortage of soldiers and frets over future weapons supplies from abroad.

Zelenskiy said Ukraine had Europe's largest reserves of titanium, essential for the aviation and space industry, and uranium, used for nuclear energy and weapons.

Many of the titanium deposits were marked in northwestern Ukraine, far from the fighting.

Ukraine has rapidly retuned its foreign policy approach to align with the transactional world view set out by the new occupant of the White House, Ukraine's most important ally.

But Zelenskiy emphasised that Kyiv was not proposing "giving away" its resources, but offering a mutually beneficial partnership to develop them jointly:

He said Russia knew in detail where Ukraine's critical resources were from Soviet-era geological surveys that had been taken back to Moscow when Kyiv gained independence in 1991.

In addition, Zelenskiy said Kyiv and the White House were discussing the idea of using Ukraine's vast underground gas storage sites to store U.S. liquefied natural gas.

Why are rare earths important?

The 17 silvery-white rare earth minerals are not uncommon in the earth's crust. But deposits that are economically viable are more difficult to find, and the real rarity comes in the complex process to separate them into the materials needed to produce permanent magnets used in a range of critical products.

China accounts for about 60% of global rare earth mine production, but its share jumps to 90% of processed rare earths and magnet output.

Below are the complex steps that rare earths must take to end up as magnets used in electric vehicles and wind turbines -- the two main areas driving demand in coming years. 

MINE

Ore is first extracted from an open pit or underground mine, crushed and moved to a plant, usually near to the mine site.

The ore contains a small percentage of rare earths, but other minerals are removed through flotation, magnetic or electrostatic processing to produce a mixed rare earth concentrate that often contains 60% to 70% rare earths.

Other operations produce a rare earth concentrate as a byproduct of mining waste or from other metals such as mineral sands or iron ore.

RADIOACTIVITY

Certain types of ore, such as monazite, have to undergo another step to remove radioactive thorium or uranium from the ore, often using acid.

SEPARATION

One of the most difficult steps is separating the individual rare earths from each other. The technology was first developed after World War II in U.S. government research laboratories.

Separation can be accomplished using ion-exchange technology. It can also be done using solvents such as ammonia, hydrochloric acids and sulphates, although some such chemicals produce toxic wastes that can cause cancer.

So-called light and heavy rare earths must go through different separation circuits where individual rare earths are extracted.

New more environmentally-friendly technologies are being developed, but they are not yet widely used.

METALS/ALLOYS

Separated rare earth oxides are then transformed into rare earth metals by electrolysis.

The most widely used permanent magnets combine rare earths neodymium and praseodymium together with iron and boron, which are put in a vacuum induction furnace to form an alloy. Small amounts of rare earths dysprosium and terbium are often added to create more heat resistance in the magnet.

MAGNETS

The alloy ingots are broken down and jet-milled in a nitrogen and argon atmosphere to micron-sized powder, which goes through a high-temperature and pressure process called "sintering" before being pressed into magnets.