Mining: Russia and the United States have begun negotiations on rare earth metals
Moscow and Washington have begun discussions on projects for Russian rare earth metals, Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, told Izvestia. According to him, American companies have already shown interest in possible agreements. It is expected that a new meeting of representatives of the Russian Federation and the United States in Riyadh may take place in mid-April. It is known that as part of the renewed communication, the parties are discussing not only political issues, but also economic cooperation. About the prospects of the Russian-American dialogue on minerals — in the material of Izvestia.
How Russia and the United States cooperate on rare earth metals
Russia and the United States have begun discussions on rare earth metals (REM) projects, Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for investment and economic cooperation with foreign countries, told Izvestia.
"Rare earth metals are an important area for cooperation, and, of course, we have started discussions about various rare earth metals and projects in Russia," he told Izvestia.
According to Dmitriev, some companies have already expressed interest in the projects.
In February, US President Donald Trump said he supported the idea of concluding an agreement with Moscow on access to rare earth metals. Washington, he said, is interested in both "huge reserves" of such metals and other "very valuable resources" of Russia.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia was ready to offer American government agencies and companies cooperation in projects for the extraction of rare earth metals.
— We certainly have an order of magnitude — I want to emphasize this — an order of magnitude more resources of this kind than in Ukraine. Russia is one of the undisputed leaders in reserves of these rare and rare-earth metals. We have them in the North, in Murmansk, in the Caucasus, in Kabardino—Balkaria, in the Far East, in the Irkutsk region, and in Yakutia, in Tuva," the head of state said.
The total reserves of all rare metals in the Russian Federation, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources, amount to 658 million tons, of which 28.5 million tons are rare earths. However, the share of our country's production in the world market does not exceed 1%, and there is practically no processing of such metals.
This year, the national project "New Materials and Chemistry" was launched, Vladimir Putin said at a February profile meeting. The national project will establish a full cycle of the rare and rare earth metals industry, ensure their extraction and processing, up to the production of finished high-tech goods with high added value. According to the results of the national project, the volume of output of such products should grow many times, the Russian president said.
Rare and rare earth metals are used in many industries, including chemical and machine-building enterprises, nuclear energy, UAV production and space technologies.
As a rule, groups of dispersed, light, refractory, radioactive and rare-earth elements are called rare. The first four are lithium, rubidium, caesium, beryllium, indium, gallium, germanium, zirconium, hafnium, vanadium, niobium, tantalum, and rhenium. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, referring to the classifier of rare metals, also includes scandium. But many scientists include it and yttrium in the group of 17 rare earth metals. This list also includes samarium, lutetium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, praseodymium, thulium, lanthanum, cerium, ytterbium, terbium, neodymium, gadolinium, europium and promethium.
The prospects for cooperation between Russia and the United States in the field of extraction and processing of rare earth metals may be quite wide. A certain warming of political relations between states has already been observed, and against this background, it should not be forgotten that the United States depends on the import of this group of elements, industrial expert Leonid Khazanov told Izvestia.
— The United States produces about 45 thousand tons of REM per year. About 1.5 thousand tons are produced in the form of oxides, the rest is processed by China, then the Americans buy from it. In the next 10 years, the demand for REM in the United States will increase to about 75 thousand tons. Obviously, they will not be able to provide these volumes at the expense of their own production," the expert noted.
The Chuktukonskoye field in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Seligdarskoye and Tomtorskoye fields in Yakutia can be considered as possible options for cooperation in the production of REM in Russia. The raw materials can be processed in Russia by creating the appropriate capacities, Khazanov suggests.
Several factors can interfere with collaboration. Firstly, anti-Russian sanctions continue to apply, and the United States supports Ukraine. Secondly, Washington should allow American companies to invest in Russian fields. Without this agreement, they will remain only on paper.
Finally, these are complex and costly projects that will be implemented over time. The REM deposits are located in remote areas where there is either no infrastructure or it is poorly developed, which means that funds are needed for the construction of production and auxiliary facilities, Leonid Khazanov emphasizes.
How are the negotiations between Russia and the United States progressing?
The interest in economic cooperation can stimulate a political dialogue between Russia and the United States. So, according to NBC, Donald Trump plans to hold a new telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin soon. In addition, a new round of consultations between Russia and the United States on the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine may take place in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia in mid-April, according to media reports.
The previous time, representatives of the parties met in the capital of Saudi Arabia on March 24, then the negotiations lasted more than 12 hours. Russia and the United States have agreed to ensure the safety of navigation in the Black Sea, not to use force and not to allow the use of commercial vessels for military purposes.
In response, Washington has committed itself to helping restore access to the world market for Russian exports of agricultural products and fertilizers. To do this, it is necessary to remove sanctions restrictions from Rosselkhoznadzor and other financial organizations involved in providing international food trade operations. The White House is also considering the opposite scenario — the introduction of secondary duties on oil exports from Russia in the absence of an agreement to end the conflict in Ukraine.
The course of negotiations on the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict is slowing down due to the position of Kiev and the EU. After a public conflict in the White House between Trump and Zelensky, the Ukrainian and American teams agreed on the text of the agreement on minerals. It is assumed that the United States will receive royalties until Ukraine pays at least $ 100 billion to the American side as compensation for military assistance, with a surcharge of 4%. At the same time, Kiev has not agreed to recognize Washington's military assistance as a duty since the beginning of its military operation.
At the same time, discussions about the upcoming presidential elections are intensifying in Ukraine. According to The Economist, Zelensky will try to catch his rivals by surprise by holding elections in July, and expects that a short deadline will allow him to run without any resistance. Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed discussing the introduction of external governance in Ukraine under the auspices of the United Nations, since its current authorities are illegitimate according to the constitution — Zelensky's term of office expired last year.
Instead of a general truce, a ceasefire in certain areas is now being discussed. In fact, during the negotiations, the parties came to the understanding that the Ukrainian side is not yet ready for a full truce and it will be used by Kiev in bad faith, said Ivan Loshkarev, associate professor of the MGIMO Department of Political Theory.
— In part, the departure from the big political agenda is due to a change in the situation on the line of contact. Kiev lost control over most of the previously occupied settlements of the Kursk region and lost one of the negotiating assets. In addition, the pace of mobilization in Ukraine is stalling, which calls into question its continued ability to resist," the expert told Izvestia.
At the same time, the EU's involvement in the Russian-American negotiations is unlikely, since Brussels intends to continue supporting Ukraine and strengthen restrictions, despite the resistance of a number of states. The next summit of the Coalition of the Willing was held on March 27 in Paris, attended by 30 countries. Following the meeting, French President Emmanuel Macron called for a ceasefire and increased assistance to Kiev. London and Paris intend to send military experts to the Ukrainian territory to determine the size of the possible contingent of the "coalition of the willing."
Among individual EU countries, Germany and Italy could start negotiations with the Russian Federation, while a significant part of the political elite of these countries takes a pronounced anti-Russian position. Hungary and Slovakia are unlikely to join the dialogue due to their limited capabilities within the EU institutions, Loshkarev concluded.
With the advent of the Trump administration, Russia and the United States have resumed dialogue on a wide range of issues. In particular, on February 12, the presidents of the two countries had their first telephone conversation since 2022. Then they talked on the phone again on March 18.
Back in February, Moscow and Washington agreed to restore the staffing levels of diplomatic staff at the embassies of both countries. In addition, at the end of February in Istanbul, the parties held another round of negotiations — in Turkey, the delegations discussed the restoration of normal operation of embassies. Prospects for intensifying the dialogue are also possible through parliamentary diplomacy — the State Duma and the Federation Council are ready for contacts with American colleagues, Izvestia found out earlier.
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