{"id":135083,"date":"2023-06-18T16:34:18","date_gmt":"2023-06-18T23:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=135083"},"modified":"2023-06-18T16:34:18","modified_gmt":"2023-06-18T23:34:18","slug":"the-war-in-ukraine-and-the-fight-over-raw-materials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2023\/06\/18\/the-war-in-ukraine-and-the-fight-over-raw-materials\/","title":{"rendered":"The war in Ukraine and the fight over raw materials"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gregor Link<\/em><\/span><\/a> Courtesy wsws.org<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The war in Ukraine is also a battle for raw materials. The country has large deposits of iron, titanium and lithium, some of which are now controlled by Russia.\u201d That\u2019s what the federally owned German foreign trade agency Germany Trade and Invest (GTAI) reported on its website on January 16 under the title Ukraine\u2019s raw materials wealth at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are trillions at stake. According to the GTAI, raw material deposits worth $12.4 trillion\u201d remain beyond the control of the Ukrainian army, including 41 coal mines, 27 gas deposits, 9 oil fields and 6 iron ore deposits.\u201d Ukraine has not only coal, gas, oil and wheat but also rare earths and metals\u2014especially lithium, which has been called the white gold\u201d of the transition to new energy and transportation technologies. The country accounts for around one-third of Europe\u2019s explored lithium deposits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Iron mine in Poltava (Ukraine)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Only the ignorant could believe that this is irrelevant to NATO\u2019s war aims. It would be the first major war in over 100 years that is not about mineral resources, markets and geostrategic interests. The World Socialist Web Site<\/em> has pointed out in previous articles<\/a> that deposits of critical raw materials in Russia and China, which are essential to the transition to electric mobility and renewable energy, are an important factor in the war calculus of NATO states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet they go unmentioned in the media\u2019s round-the-clock war propaganda. The media wish the public to believe that NATO is waging this war to defend freedom\u201d and democracy\u201d\u2014and that after bombing Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria back into the Middle Ages under similar pretexts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Relevant trade journals, industry magazines and think tanks, on the other hand, rave about Ukraine\u2019s mineral wealth and discuss how best to capture it. It was to this end that German Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Green Party) even traveled to Ukraine at the beginning of April with a high-ranking business delegation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the industry magazine Mining World<\/em>, Ukraine has a total of around 20,000 raw material deposits, of which only 7,800 have been explored. Numerous other articles and strategy papers openly state that this is what the war is about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On February 24, 2022, the day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the largest German business magazine, Capital,<\/em> published an article stating that Europe\u2019s supply of raw materials\u201d was threatened\u201d by the Russian occupation of eastern Ukraine. Ukraine was not only the leading grain exporter\u201d but also the largest EU supplier of iron ore pellets and a linchpin for Europe\u2019s energy security.\u201d Among investors, the magazine said, there is concern that the war will cut off exports of key raw materials.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GTAI article cited earlier reports that European steel mills were sourcing nearly one-fifth of their iron ore pellets from Ukraine in 2021. GTAI goes on to write that Ukraine is among the top ten producers of iron ore, manganese, zirconium, and graphite, and is among the world leaders in titanium and kaolin.\u201d In addition to untapped oil and gas fields,\u201d Ukraine\u2019s lithium and titanium deposits, in particular, hold enormous potential\u201d for the European economy. In 2020, production volumes amounted to 1,681,000 tons of kaolin, 537,000 tons of titanium, 699,000 tons of manganese and 49,274,000 tons of iron ore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lithium for electromobility and energy storage<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The price of lithium has increased more than eightfold in the last decade and is the subject of intense speculation. The metal is of strategic importance to the major imperialist powers because it is used in lithium-ion batteries installed in electric vehicles and off-grid renewable energy sources, and is also needed for lightweight aluminum alloys in the aerospace industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The largest lithium deposit in Europe is located in the Donetsk Oblast in the middle of the embattled Donbas region, only kilometers from the front lines. An article in the Tagesspiegel<\/em>, published two months after the Russian invasion, points to untapped lithium reserves of 500,000 tons in Shevchenko near Potrovsk and at least two other Ukrainian deposits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Western companies and Ukrainian oligarchs were already fighting bitterly for control of this white gold\u201d before the war. As the Tagesspiegel<\/em> reports, Ukrainian businessmen\u201d (who stood close to the Ukrainian government of the time under the oligarch Petro Poroshenko) with connections to Western mining companies obtained mining licenses, without a tender process, for the lithium deposit in Shevchenko as early as 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company in question, Petro Consulting\u2014which was renamed European Lithium Ukraine\u201d shortly before the war began\u2014is expected to be bought out by the Australian-European mining company European Lithium once its access to Ukraine\u2019s lithium reserves is secured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018, when the Ukrainian Geological Survey refused to issue a special permit\u201d for Ukraine\u2019s second largest lithium deposit at Dobra, likewise bypassing the tender process, Petro Consulting went so far as to sue the agency. After the Ukrainian Procurator General\u2019s Office eventually launched an investigation into the allegedly illegal special permits, Petro-Consulting had its Shevchenko mining license revoked by the courts in April 2020 until further notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a spokesman for European Lithium told Der Tagesspiegel<\/em> that the company bears no risk in connection with the Ukrainian deposits.\u201d He expressed confidence that the projects would be made production-ready\u201d after the end of the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Titanium for the Western arms industry<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In a September 2022 article titled Ukraine\u2019s Titanium Can Armor the West,\u201d the transatlantic think tank Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) wrote: Support for Ukraine has been driven by strategic concerns and moral-political values. But long-term Western help should also be based on solid material interests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ukraine\u2019s substantial titanium deposits\u201d are a key resource critical to the West\u201d because the metal is integral to many defense systems,\u201d such as aircraft components and missiles. Currently, the raw material for Airbus, Boeing and Co. is extracted in an expensive and time-consuming six-step process\u201d from titanium ore, which until then had been sourced to a considerable extent from Russia. This dependence\u201d on strategic competitors and adversaries\u201d is unacceptable from the West\u2019s point of view and can be ended with the help of Ukrainian resources:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For example, Dnipro-based Velta, the largest private exporter of raw titanium in Europe, has developed a new production system that bypasses the intensive process of producing titanium sponge and could supply the US and European defense and aerospace industries with finished metal. Given there are only five countries in the world actively producing titanium sponge \u2014China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Japan and Ukraine \u2014 Velta\u2019s technology could be a game changer for the supply chain by cutting reliance on Russia and China.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

CEPA is funded by US and European defense contractors and lists as members of its scientific advisory board\u201d Donald Trump\u2019s National Security Advisor General H. R. McMaster, former German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt and publicists Anne Applebaum, Francis Fukuyama, and Timothy Garton Ash among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CEPA article continues, Reorienting titanium contracts to Ukraine would stimulate the country\u2019s economy, even during wartime, not to mention during postwar reconstruction, and simultaneously strike another blow at Russia\u2019s war machine.\u201d The goal, it states, should be cementing Ukraine\u2019s integration into Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A January 28, 2023 report in Newsweek<\/em> reports, there is a nascent effort underway in the U.S. and allied nations to identify, develop, and utilize Ukraine\u2019s vast resources of a key metal crucial for the development of the West\u2019s most advanced military technology which will form the backbone of future deterrence against Russia and China.\u201d The report adds, If Ukraine wins, the U.S. and its allies will be in sole position to cultivate a new conduit of titanium.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/strong>Strategic raw materials partnership\u201d between EU and Ukraine<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The US and EU efforts to plunder Ukraine\u2019s lithium and titanium deposits are part of the broader goal of tying Ukraine to the West as a strategic raw materials supplier. In particular, the EU is seeking to free itself from dependence on China\u2014currently its most important raw materials supplier\u2014against which the imperialist powers, especially the United States, are preparing to wage war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On July 13, 2021, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d, Vice President of the European Commission, signed a Strategic Partnership on Raw Materials and Batteries\u201d in Kiev to integrate critical raw materials and battery value chains.\u201d Ukraine\u2019s inclusion in the European Raw Materials Alliance (ERMA) and the European Battery Alliance (EBA) serves to bolster Europe\u2019s resilience and open strategic autonomy in key technologies,\u201d the EU Commission said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Referring to the list of critical raw materials in the EU\u2019s associated action plan,\u201d \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d told the press, 21 of these critical raw materials are in Ukraine, which is also extracting 117 out of 120 globally used minerals.\u201d He added: We\u2019re talking about lithium, cobalt, manganese, rare earths\u2014all of them are in Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the signing, EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton, who is also responsible for the defense and space industries of EU countries, praised the high potential of the critical raw material reserves in Ukraine\u201d that could help in addressing some of the strategic dependencies [of the EU].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking at Raw Materials Week in Brussels in November 2022, Prime Minister Shmyhal stressed that Ukraine is among the top ten producers of titanium, iron ore, kaolin, manganese, zirconium and graphite\u201d and renewed his pledge to make the country an integral part of industrial supply chains in the EU.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EU\u2019s strategic dependencies\u201d are by no means limited to Russia or China and certainly not to Ukraine. A global race for strategic sources of raw materials has long since begun, in the course of which the US and the leading EU powers are attempting to divide among themselves the mineral resources and other resources of the weaker\u201d states. Although they are jointly waging war against Russia in Ukraine, this inevitably exacerbates conflicts between themselves as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The escalation of the war in Ukraine shows that the ruling elites are willing to go to extremes to enforce their profit interests. Only the working class can put an end to permanent war and the prospect of devastating nuclear war by bringing the resources of the entire planet under its democratic control on the basis of a socialist program and holding war profiteers to account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gregor Link Courtesy wsws.org The war in Ukraine is also a battle for raw materials. The country has large deposits of iron, titanium and lithium, some of which are now controlled by Russia.\u201d That\u2019s what the federally owned German foreign trade agency Germany Trade and Invest (GTAI) reported on its website on January 16 under […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135083\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}