European Pravda: US-Ukraine subsoil agreement includes 57 types of minerals

The subsoil agreement signed between Kyiv and Washington covers 57 types of mineral resources.

The Ukrainian news outlet European Pravda, whose journalists reviewed the text of the document, reported on the matter.

Specifically, the agreement pertains to the extraction of aluminum, antimony, arsenic, barite, beryllium, bismuth, cerium, cesium, chromium, cobalt, copper, dysprosium, erbium, europium, fluorine, fluorspar, gadolinium, gallium, germanium, holmium, indium, iridium, lanthanum, lithium, lutetium, magnesium, manganese, neodymium, nickel, niobium, palladium, platinum, potassium, praseodymium, rhodium, rubidium, ruthenium, samarium, scandium, tantalum, tellurium, terbium, thulium, tin, titanium, tungsten, uranium, vanadium, ytterbium, yttrium, zinc, zirconium, as well as oil and natural gas.

The report adds that the agreement only applies to new deposits, for which Ukraine will issue licenses after the agreement enters into force.

This list can only be expanded with the consent of both parties.

According to the document, the United States does not have a "right of first refusal" for American companies to obtain licenses for mineral extraction. However, American companies must have access to auctions or negotiations to purchase such minerals on terms no less favourable than those for other buyers.

The agreement does not regulate the extraction or revenues from other minerals, nor does it pertain to revenues from Ukrainian infrastructure — a provision that the U.S. had originally proposed.

The news outlet also reports additional details. In particular, the agreement sets out political parameters for cooperation between the two governments on subsoil development, mineral sales, and U.S. assistance, including military aid, that Ukraine will receive in the future.

Meanwhile, Washington and Kyiv have signed only the first part of the subsoil agreement; legal and technical components are still to come.

The agreement signed on Wednesday consists of 12 pages. For comparison, the outlet notes that the previous draft provided by the U.S. to Ukraine in March — written in the same font — spanned over 90 pages.

The current agreement does not mention principles for managing an investment fund, nor does it include commitments by the U.S. to refrain from withdrawing income from the fund for 10 years, or to reinvest 100% of the proceeds into Ukraine’s recovery. These provisions are expected to be included in the next agreement, the text of which is currently being prepared, the outlet concludes.

As Ukrainian MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak noted on his Telegram channel, “Yesterday, we signed the first part: the political — intergovernmental — agreement, which mostly contains general language.”

“It will require ratification. Then come two more parts: an agreement between the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation and a Ukrainian agency (after ratification), and the technical section outlining how the system will function and be distributed. Several laws will also need to be amended, including the Budget and Tax Codes,” the MP emphasised.

By Khagan Isayev