Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-25

[Legbiter]

My Ukrainian friends/soldiers are pretty excited about it. Continued US support is worth a worthless promise to the rare earth stuff, especially considering they're pretty much all located in the Donbas...

Yeah as one Ukrainian has so eloquently put it. 

I'd give all the lithium Ukraine has in exchange for securing Ukraine 1991 borders and NATO membership.

Americans would have so much lithium, they'd be so sick and tired of lithium, they'd come to me and go 'Please, please, we don't want lithium anymore,' and I'm going to say 'I'm sorry, but we're going to keep sending you lithium.'

https://x.com/dim0kq/status/1886529691382898765

[Jacob]

In that case I'll be cautiously optimistic on this count then.

[Barrister]

In that case I'll be cautiously optimistic on this count then.

Ukraine has been about the only area where I'm very cautiously optimistic about Trump.

I had expected him to just pull all support immediately.

I think he saw what happened in Afghanistan and doesn't want that kind of loss on his watch though.

[DGuller]

Seems like good news.  If Ukraine inks a deal with Trump, then he'll have no choice but to abide by the terms.

[Solmyr]

Bold of you to assume Trump will honor deals.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Bold of you to assume Trump will honor deals.

I think gullers response is sarcastic...

[Richard Hakluyt]

My understanding is that rare earths require very complex and expensive refining. There are no really rich ores and the various elements are chemically similar hence difficult to separate, There would have to be a massive investment in the region where the ores are found. I think Zelensky and Ukraine would love to host a massive American economic asset in their backyard.

[celedhring]

Maybe Trump can be convinced that the Donbass holds similar promise to Gaza as a casino resort.

[Valmy]

My understanding is that rare earths require very complex and expensive refining. There are no really rich ores and the various elements are chemically similar hence difficult to separate, There would have to be a massive investment in the region where the ores are found. I think Zelensky and Ukraine would love to host a massive American economic asset in their backyard.

What they aren't is particularly rare. I think there are probably safer and more secure places to get lithium.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Well lithium is not a rare earth.

But the USA has its own rare earth deposits, somewhere out west, but stopped exploiting them as supplies from China were cheaper 

IIRC there are plans to reopen these facilities for economic security reasons.

[celedhring]

Yeah, Spain (and I think other places in the EU) has large lithium deposits. It's just cheaper and politically easier to source it from elsewhere.

[HVC]

I think Portugal is currently the largest producer in Europe for lithium.

[celedhring]

I think Portugal is currently the largest producer in Europe for lithium.

Makes sense, Spain's deposits are located in areas near the Portuguese border.

[Valmy]

Well lithium is not a rare earth.

But the USA has its own rare earth deposits, somewhere out west, but stopped exploiting them as supplies from China were cheaper 

IIRC there are plans to reopen these facilities for economic security reasons.

I didn't think so, but the Ukrainian post earlier specifically mentioned Lithium as being rare earth. I don't have a photographic memory or anything so I just assumed I was mistaken.

Anyway, as I said, the problem has never been that rare earth metals are rare or hard to find. So we don't need Ukraine to get them was all I was saying.

[HVC]

its a biproduct for mining for ceramics material and still the largest in europe. We've become to comfortable with getting resources from china.