On January 8, Ukraine granted the right to mine lithium at the large state-owned Dobra deposit to investors that include billionaire Ronald Lauder, a friend of U.S. President Donald Trump, The New York Times reports.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe decision was made by a Ukrainian government commission, according to two members of the commission who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the vote. Although the deal still requires formal approval by Ukraine\u2019s Cabinet of Ministers, officials said it is effectively finalized,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
Lauder is described as an heir to a cosmetics empire who has known Trump since college and was the one who suggested the idea of purchasing resource-rich Greenland. Another investor in the consortium is TechMet, an energy company partly owned by a U.S. government investment agency created during Trump\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo commission members said the winning consortium outperformed its competitors by meeting most of the tender\u2019s criteria, dismissing any suggestions of favoritism. At the same time, by cultivating ties with investors linked to Trump and his administration, Kyiv is positioning itself favorably with the American leader as it seeks his support in peace negotiations with Russia, appealing to his business-oriented mindset,\u201d the publication noted.<\/p>\n
According to the newspaper, the Dobra lithium deposit in central Ukraine is among the country\u2019s largest lithium reserves. Lithium is a key component in the production of electric batteries. The deposit will be developed under a production-sharing agreement, which allows investors to extract minerals in exchange for sharing output with the Ukrainian government. Under a U.S.-Ukraine minerals agreement, half of the revenue received by the Ukrainian government from the Dobra lithium deposit will be directed to a joint investment fund.<\/p>\n
The U.S.-Ukraine agreement on joint mineral extraction signed in 2025 stipulates that a company seeking to develop a deposit and requiring additional investors must first present its project to the fund\u2014a mechanism designed to advance the interests of U.S. businesses.<\/p>\n
In the case of the Dobra lithium deposit, this could create potential conflicts of interest, as the U.S. agency overseeing the fund\u2014the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation\u2014also holds a stake in TechMet, the paper writes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt remains unclear how much Mr. Lauder and TechMet have committed to invest in developing the Dobra lithium deposit. The tender set a minimum investment requirement of $179 million, but a commission member who voted on Thursday said the consortium\u2019s commitments were significantly higher. However, it takes years for investments to translate into actual production and profits. The consortium must first conduct geological exploration to determine the true value of the deposit and then finance the equipment and infrastructure needed for extraction. Industry experts say it typically takes about 15 years to move from discovery to production,\u201d the article concludes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":150950,"menu_order":0,"template":"","newscat":[9],"newstag":[],"issues":[],"class_list":["post-150949","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","newscat-novosti"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/150949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"newscat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newscat?post=150949"},{"taxonomy":"newstag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newstag?post=150949"},{"taxonomy":"issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issues?post=150949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}