The demand for electric cars raised the issue of reserves and the possibility of mining lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese.
Ukraine has reserves of these metals and in the future can supply them to the world market. This is stated in the message of the State Service of Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine on the Government portal.
Non-ferrous metals are needed for the manufacture of batteries.
In the State Service of Geology and Subsoil, they noted that Ukraine ranks first in the world in the number of some deposits, geological reserves of others require further study and investment.
Ukraine ranks first in the world in proven manganese reserves and second in total reserves.
In Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, Nikopol manganese ore basin there, the largest of manganese deposits in the world, is situated.
The balance reserves of manganese at the Nikopol, Fedorovsk (Dnepropetrovsk and Kheroznka region) and the Veliko-Tokmak deposit are 2.37 million tons, the off-balance reserves are 53 million tons, the reserves of the mentioned sludge store amount to 6.35 million tons.
In 2018 mining of manganese ores was carried out at the Nikopol mineral field (3535 thousand tons were mined) and at the sludge storage (237.3 tons).
Deposits of nickel and cobalt are located in Kirovograd and Dnepropetrovsk regions.
12 nickel deposits contain 217.8 thousand tons of balance and 121.2 thousand tons of off-balance reserves.
The balance reserves of cobalt are taken into account at 11 cobalt containing nickel silicate deposits and amount to 9859 tons (off-balance - 8020 tons).
Lithium deposits are located in Kirovograd, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Zhytomyr regions.
The volume of lithium reserves, in accordance with the law, is a state secret.
In 2017-2018, Petro-Consulting LLC and Regional Investment Technologies LLC received special rights for the extraction of lithium, but no mining has been carried out yet.
Gosgeonedra reports that today foreign companies are quite actively showing interest in the production of non-ferrous metals in Ukraine. Among the interested parties there are Brazil, China, Japan, Canada, USA, Austria and Ukrainian companies with foreign investments.
The service also reports that Europe is 100% dependent on imports of niobium-tantalum ores and a number of other rare-earth minerals, so the EU countries are looking for opportunities to implement projects for the search and mining of such raw materials in Ukraine.
On the 22nd of April, the State Service of Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine will lead sales through the Prozoro system. Sales. It will be the third electronic auction for which 9 sites with deposits of rare-earth rocks, amber, beryllium, graphite, water, clay and limestone are put up.
As a reminder, on March 6, 3 unique auctions were held in Ukraine at once in the electronic trading system ProZorro. Sales. For the first time they concerned the rights to subsoil use.
The increase in the value of lots amounted to about 96 million of the declared value, which is more than 3 times - from 45 million UAH to 141 million UAH. For one of the lots there was an especially rigorous struggle and the winner among 4 bidders paid the price 479% higher from the declared value of the rights for the lot.