US-backed miner TechMet seeks to develop Ukraine | World Mining

US-backed miner TechMet seeks to develop Ukraine – World Mining News

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US-backed mining company TechMet desires to develop a main lithium project in Ukraine, in what could possibly be one of the primary tasks constructed beneath the US-Ukraine minerals deal that’s close to being finalised.

TechMet chief government Brian Menell stated lithium assets on the Dobra project in central Ukraine have been “very significant”, and the company had been trying on the site since 2023. The US authorities is a shareholder.

Washington and Kyiv are working to signal a minerals deal in coming days, and representatives from the US are in Saudi Arabia this week for talks over ending the Russia-Ukraine warfare.

TechMet’s curiosity within the Dobra project was not depending on the minerals deal, stated Menell. “However, if the minerals deal were to happen, it would certainly enhance our interest, and would create a framework that would justify doing more, bigger, quicker,” he added.

TechMet’s investment associate within the Dobra lithium project is Ronald Lauder, a billionaire pal of US President Donald Trump. Lauder has additionally been a massive advocate of US efforts to buy Greenland.

Part-owned by the US authorities, TechMet is a Dublin-based mining investment vehicle valued at $1.2bn, whose different traders embrace the Qatar Investment Authority, Mercuria and Lansdowne Partners.

The company was fashioned during the primary Trump administration, when the US International Development Finance Corporation invested and have become a shareholder, and its mission is to additional US and European pursuits in critical minerals, and scale back China’s dominance of the availability chain.

Dobra is one of a quantity of main lithium deposits in Ukraine, together with Polokhivske and Shevchenko, which is in Russian-controlled territory.

Demand for lithium, which is utilized in batteries for electric vehicles, is anticipated to increase over the following decade.

Since Trump took workplace again on January 20, he has been centered on rising US entry to minerals assets, together with in Greenland and Ukraine.

Menell stated that it was “enormously valuable” to have a new administration that was “much more willing to do big, new things, that the country and the world needs”, in phrases of critical minerals.

“We hope that we could be a big part of them doing bigger things, quicker, and being bolder on the global critical minerals supply chain stage,” he added.

The US-Ukraine minerals deal would create a development fund utilizing future proceeds from mining tasks; the funding can be used to invest in reconstruction tasks in Ukraine.

The minerals deal was anticipated to be signed last month, however delayed by a public Oval Office conflict between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

In Ukraine, the federal government has not but opened the tender course of to award the licence to develop the Dobra lithium project. TechMet plans to be among the many bidders for the project, which might contain building a lithium mine and processing services.  

Menell stated TechMet had additionally checked out different areas of potential in Ukraine past the Dobra lithium deposit, together with in titanium, uranium and graphite.

“All of these critical mineral opportunities in Ukraine, require time, investment and management,” stated Menell. “I think it [the critical minerals deal] is positive, assuming it now happens, and assuming it is implemented in a way that is effective, which is not going to be easy.”

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