Ukraine to offer U.S. metals from mining waste under new minerals pact

As part of the minerals agreement, Ukraine will offer the United States not only traditional greenfield deposits but also alternative sources of raw materials, such as tailings and waste from the mining and metallurgical complex, Deputy Minister of Economy and U.S.-Ukraine Investment Fund board member Yegor Perelyhin has said.

"What was long seen as waste is in fact a new raw material base. Without developing new quarries, we can extract strategic metals for batteries, electronics, aviation, and defense industries — while also mitigating historic environmental damage," he wrote in an op-ed for Interfax-Ukraine.

Perelyhin noted that ash from thermal power plants contains gallium, scandium, and germanium, which can be extracted by modular plants, while metallurgical tailings contain "lost" cobalt, tellurium, vanadium, tungsten, and sometimes even gold and silver.

Other promising sources include mineral sand tailings, "red mud" (a by-product of alumina production), phosphogypsum (a by-product of fertilizer production), and uranium mining and processing waste.

According to the deputy minister, waste recycling has advantages over developing new deposits, as it is faster and cheaper thanks to existing infrastructure, power grids, and logistics. It also reduces the footprint of disturbed land, neutralizes hazardous sludge, and lowers the risk of environmental accidents.

• The U.S.-Ukraine Investment Fund, established under the minerals agreement, began operating on September 3. So far, it has only adopted operating rules and formed committees. The next step will be to identify projects for the first pilot investments.