Russia Should Hand Over Mineral Rights
By Tim Braden, the Independent Republican
When you think about it, at the very least as a negotiating gambit, one could argue it is Russia that should be the country handing over mineral rights of critical minerals to Ukraine and the West to compensate for the cost of resisting Russian aggression.
A portion could be allocated pro rata to pay back the United States and other donor countries and a portion could be used for the reconstruction of Ukraine’s infrastructure destroyed by Russia.
Russia is a major commodity and critical minerals producer and much of its mineral and metal production ends up in China. Russia is rich in rare earths such as scandium and yttrium. Other substantial Russian exports of critical minerals include palladium, nickel. copper, titanium, vanadium, and platinum group metals.
Diverting a portion of this flow to America and European countries as compensation would augment US depleted stockpiles of minerals which in real terms are only about 5% of levels at the end of the Cold War.
In contrast, Ukraine’s mineral rights are problematic for a number of reasons.
First, reserves are unproven and we don’t yet know where the sovereign borders of Ukraine will end up with much its rare earths and critical mineral deposits in land currently under Russian occupation.
Second, the capital requirement to develop mines and refine ore will be staggering.
Third, the timeline to accomplish the development of mining opportunities is probably a decade or longer.
That Russia compensates for its aggression with hard assets to rebuild Ukraine and Western stockpiles is both equitable and in our mutual strategic interest.