Mineral deal dreams

Trump’s mineral deal dreams meet war-torn reality inside a struggling Ukraine mine

From CNN's Nick Paton Walsh, Victoria Butenko and Daria Markina-Tarasova

A moonshot rare earth minerals deal is suddenly the focus of talking peace in Ukraine. The deal’s signatories, the US and Ukraine, appear to have opposing interpretations of its terms, which leave many thorny details for a later discussion.

Some current and former US officials have cast doubt on President Donald Trump’s claim that the potential deal he is on the verge of signing with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky would offer the US easy access to a plethora of rare earth minerals.

Much of what does exist will be difficult to exploit, particularly at a time of war.

And from a beleaguered titanium mine in the town of Irshansk, where electricity is only sometimes on for three hours a day, it is hard to see how Ukraine could, in this lifetime, get to the half a trillion dollars Trump has suggested they might repay.

“Now we don’t know what and how our work will go on even tomorrow,” said Dmytro Holik, director of mining and concentrating plant at Ukrainian conglomerate Group DF.

“Every day we see how Ukraine’s energy system is being destroyed. Every day, entire regions are cut off in an emergency,” he added, a reference to the waves of drones and missiles Russia pounds Ukrainian homes and energy infrastructure with each night.

The plant’s staff are mostly men, kept away from conscription as titanium is considered a critical industry. Profits are low, prospects dim.

The proposed minerals bonanza now at the heart of continued US aid to Ukraine in the largest war in Europe since the 1940s, seems to speak to a fantastical future world of prosperity.

Trump on Thursday held out the possibility of US personnel in Ukraine working to extract minerals once a mineral resources deal was in effect.

But the extent of Ukraine’s mineral wealth is unclear. And the nature of the deal is opaque.