Confused: American Geologists Can't Figure Out Where Ukrainian Lithium Is
American geologists are trying to assess Ukraine's prospects for lithium mining, but are running into problems.
Jennifer Fandrick, Director of Public Policy at KoBold Metals, stated this at the Global Development Forum at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
"There are currently publicly available sources that say that Ukraine can provide up to 10% of the world's lithium production. But we currently have very little data, and we are very dependent on it, as are all exploration companies. There is virtually no data.
"The Soviet Union did some research in the 80s. But it's classified. We don't know how to access some of this classified geophysical data that would help us assess the Ukrainian shield, where we think there's a lot of lithium," Fandrick said.
According to her, there is so little information that exploration companies cannot even make a decision about exploration.
However, it is known that in Ukraine it is petalite, not lithium selenite. This type of ore requires additional expensive processing.
American geologists are stumped : they can't figure out where Ukrainian lithium is located.