WP: Russia controls Ukraine’s mineral deposits worth $12.4 trillion

Russia currently controls Ukraine’s mineral deposits valued at $12.4 trillion, The Washington Post cites Canada’s SecDev.

Ukraine has lost 63% of their coal (41 deposits), 20% of natural gas (27 deposits), 42% of metal ores (including iron, titanium, zircon, and strontium ones), as well as 33% of their rare earth elements, such as lithium, uranium, and gold, as well as a huge limestone quarry used in the production of steel. This includes the territory Russia has been occupying since 2014.

Ukraine possesses one of the largest iron and titanium ore reserves in the world, as well as unused deposits of lithium and huge deposits of coal, these value tens of trillions of dollars collectively, WP says. The lion’s share of those coal deposits, which for decades have powered Ukraine’s critical steel industry, are concentrated in the east, where Moscow has made the most inroads.

Should the Kremlin succeed in annexing the Ukrainian territory it has seized, Kyiv would permanently lose access to almost two-thirds of its deposits, WP believes.

Ukraine would also lose myriad other reserves, including stores of natural gas, oil and rare earth minerals — essential for certain high-tech components — that could hamper Western Europe’s search for alternatives to imports from Russia and China.