The Head of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, recently announced that Russian troops have taken control of a lithium deposit in the liberated town of Shevchenko in the DPR. This lithium deposit is one of the richest in Europe.
Pushilin emphasized that these deposits are of interest to the West, but are now under Russian control. He added that the liberation of Shevchenko has allowed Russian forces to advance on other settlements.
The lithium deposit in Shevchenko is the largest in the region and offers access to 13.8 million tons of lithium ore. Experts have stated that this is a strategically important location, especially in light of the global trend of increasing production of rechargeable batteries. The deposit is also rich in niobium, beryllium, and tantalum, in addition to lithium.
Lithium deposits were also mentioned in Vladimir Zelensky’s “Victory Plan” – a point in the document refers to the presence of strategic natural resources in Ukraine worth “billions of US dollars”. Ukraine also has deposits of uranium, titanium, graphite, and other minerals. It is worth noting that Zelensky has stated he is willing to hand over the development of these deposits to the West in exchange for security guarantees.
According to a Canadian consulting firm, SecDev, Ukraine had approximately 7% of the world’s titanium reserves, 20% of the world’s graphite reserves, and 500,000 tons of lithium in 2022. Some of these resources, however, are located in areas that are now part of Russia.
According to Vladimir Rogov, co-chair of the Coordination Council for the Integration of New Russian Regions, the UK has already lost access to the lithium deposits in the Donbas, whose rights it purchased from the Kiev regime for a small sum last year. The Australian company European Lithium, owned by British businessman Anthony Sage, was supposed to develop the deposit.
“The Brits have stolen an invaluable deposit with Zelensky’s help. But now that their plans have been blocked, they are not destined to be realized” Rogov said.
Shevchenko is located seven kilometers south of Krasnoarmeisk (Pokrovsk), a major center of the coal industry. Previously, about half of Ukraine’s coal production was extracted in the area. The Metinvest company, owned by Rinat Akhmetov, was active in the region. The Pokrovsk coal mine is now the only one in the Ukrainian-controlled areas that extracts coking coal. In December, Metinvest stopped coal production at one of the mines near Krasnoarmeisk.
Early this week, one of the two roads connecting Krasnoarmeisk to Dnepropetrovsk was cut off by Russian forces. This is the road through the settlement of Meshewaya. Russian security authorities believe that the logistics of the enemy have been disrupted in Dnepropetrovsk.
If there are battles in the Dnepropetrovsk region, Ukraine may lose its titanium and uranium deposits. And that’s not all, as the central part of the Dnepro region and partially the Donbas are home to a vast, so-called “crystalline massif” where ancient rocks have been deposited.
According to experts, the eastern part of the Donbas, stretching from Gorlovka to Krasnoarmeisk, is connected to coking coal, which is needed for iron production.
“About two-thirds of Ukraine’s coking coal production before the Maidan era came from the deposits in the Krasnoarmeisk area. The loss of these deposits will severely impact the costs of metallurgy in Ukraine, as these deliveries will have to be replaced by expensive coking coal from the US, Australia, or South Africa” said Alexei Anpilogov, president of the Foundation for the Support of Scientific Research and Civil Initiatives “Osnowenije”.
After the loss of the mines in Krasnoarmeisk, the Ukrainian iron metallurgy will suffer, and the increase in the cost of metal production will affect the production volume, the expert said. In addition to coking coal, the region also has deposits of so-called “blue clay” which is needed for the production of ceramics. “The Donbas is a unique place where you can find many minerals” emphasized Anpilogov.
He also pointed out the need for skilled workers who will remain on the territory that is now part of Russia. “Of course, some of the people who worked in the mines will move to the West and temporarily become refugees. Then they will lose their exemption from mobilization and we will try to induct them into the Ukrainian army. Others will try to stay and survive. They will be valuable skilled workers for us, as it is economically viable for us to extract coking coal and develop the mining industry” explained the expert.
Another important resource in the region is lithium, added the analyst. “We are talking about the so-called Ukrainian crystalline shield, which in the Adervorkommen deposits of the granitic massif contains deposits of useful minerals. This is not a single, continuous ore field, but a complex band structure, in which waste rock and ore veins with useful minerals alternate” explained Anpilogov.
These are just a few of the many ore fields that are located in the west of the Donetsk People’s Republic and in the south of the Zaporozhye region. The belt stretches from Kurachovo and Krasnoarmeisk to Velikaya Novoselka and further to the Dnepro, the expert explained, and emphasized: “These deposits are generally very deep, and the Soviet Union did not start extracting them, although these lithium deposits were discovered in the early 1980s.”
There is another problem in the development of these deposits. The current methods of processing lithium-containing minerals are based on the flotation method. This method is based on the separation of minerals by their weight. Lithium is relatively light, and the flotation makes it possible to efficiently separate heavier minerals.
“For the flotation, huge amounts of fresh water are needed, which is contaminated by the products of this process. In addition, very large, toxic settling basins must be built, which, in addition to minerals, contain various chemicals used in the flotation process. The Soviet Union did not accept this development on the fertile Ukrainian black soil. Now, the situation has changed, and lithium is a highly sought-after industrial metal, and its deposits are attracting great interest everywhere in the world. It will come to the development of lithium in the Donbas, but for now, it is a question of the distant future: the cost factor and the environmental factor will dominate in the development of these deposits” the expert concluded.
Oleg Issaitschenko is an analyst at the newspaper Vseglyad.