Billionaires in the making from Trump's mineral deal: Who will get what as Ukraine and the US agree

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Billionaires in the making from Trump's mineral deal: Who will get what as Ukraine and the US agree to carve up rare Earth resources

Daily Mail
By KELLY GARINO
26 February 2025



US firms could potentially make billions off the back of Donald Trump's mineral agreement with Ukraine, which the US president claimed might be worth as much as a trillion dollars.

Trump repeatedly said that Ukraine needed to repay the United States for the billions it received in military aid under the Biden administration and asked for access to the rare mineral deposits in the country.

The draft of the deal does not include his contentious proposal to give the US £395billion worth of profits from Ukraine's rare earth minerals as compensation for its wartime assistance, according to a Kyiv official speaking on condition of anonymity.

Instead, it indicates that the US and Ukraine should develop state-owned resources in the war-torn country like minerals, oil, and gas together with revenues diverted to a joint US-Ukrainian fund.

The US 'would own the maximum financial interest in the fund allowed under American law, though not necessarily all', according to the New York Times.

One official said the deal had better terms of investments and another one said that Kyiv secured favorable amendments and viewed the outcome as 'positive.'

This comes after Kyiv officials suggested to Trump backer and tech billionaire Elon Musk prior to the war with Russia that he should invest in Ukrainian lithium mines.

The Ukrainian Geological Survey last year claimed that the war-torn country had reserves of rare minerals - but US scientists made no mention of such sought-after earths in their own US Geological Survey in 2021, according to the Times.

Volodymyr Zelensky could sign the deal for the rights to its mineral wealth as early as Friday, with Trump confirming reports that the two would meet in the US later this week following their public spat that saw Trump call his Ukrainian counterpart a 'dictator'.

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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14437697/donald-trump-ukraine-minerals-deal-zelensky.html