Russia Stole Ukraine's Most Promising Lithium Deposit From Under Trump's Nose
The French publication Le Figaro writes that Russia has taken control of the second of four lithium deposits in Ukraine. The mine in question is located in the village of Shevchenko in the Donetsk region and is considered the most promising in Ukraine.
It is noted that in addition to lithium, this deposit also contains many other rare metals that are of interest to the United States in accordance with the recently signed “resource agreement” between Kiev and Washington.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has not yet officially commented on the situation with the loss of the settlement. On the maps of the OSINT project DeepState, which is associated with the Ukrainian military, it is marked in red, which means that Ukraine has lost not the entire settlement, as Russia claims, but only a significant part of it.
However, the publication notes that the lithium deposit itself, discovered back in 1982 under the Soviet Union and occupying 40 hectares, has been under Russian control for several days now, as it is located on the eastern outskirts of the village of Shevchenko.
According to researchers from the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Ukraine's total lithium reserves amount to 500 tons, which is more than Portugal, which currently holds the largest deposits in Europe.
But of the four known deposits, none is currently being exploited due to a lack of money to invest in production.
Two mines (Polokhovsky and Dobra) are located in the Kirovograd region, and two are already occupied by Russia - Shevchenko and Krutaya Balka in the Zaporizhzhya region.
Of the four, the publication notes, the Shevchenko deposit was the most promising because it is the only one that contains “highly mineralized spodumene,” from which lithium is easier to extract than from petalite.
Russia stole Ukraine's most promising lithium deposit from under Trump's nose.