The huge excavator, who works in the quarry near the Central -Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr, rarely stops removing the earth and precious titanium 24 hours a day.
“Ukraine has about 20 percent of the world’s titanium reserves,” Operations Manager Dmytro Holik told CBC News when the noise of the excavator bloomed in the distance.
“I am very interested in the fact that Ukraine can become a global or European Titan hub.”
On this point, Holik and US President Donald Trump seem to share the common basis.
After weeks of painful and often public negotiations between American and Ukrainian civil servants, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will arrive in Washington on Friday to formally sign a natural resource pact with Trump.
However, the Ukrainian guide sounds rather unclear about what exactly he and Trump agreed.
“This deal could be a great success, or it could pass quietly,” Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv on Wednesday. “And the great success depends on our conversation with President Trump.”
With details of the Ukraine-US mineral contract, CBC News site visits in Ukraine, the Titan and Graphite producing two of the critical minerals that the country wants to exchange for more US help in the war for Russia.
The basic outline of the deal requires Ukraine to bring money from future natural resource projects in Ukraine to an investment fund that both the United States and Ukraine would control. In return, Zelenskyy wants Trump to offer his security guarantees for the country after the end of the war with Russia.
But Trump seems to have other ideas. He told reporters in the Oval Office this week that he would not offer any guarantees – even when he addressed the financial advantages of the minerals framework.
“We were able to complete a deal in which we will get our money back,” said Trump, referring to the $ 120 billion of the US of military and financial support that bid administration has made available to Ukraine since Russia in February 2022.
As Zelensky emphasized, the congress assignment for Ukraine was actually not a loan.
Strong, tight, light
The Titan facility in Zhytomyr is operated by the Ukrainian conglomerat group DF and has been in operation since 2011. While a large part of the world titan is used in steel production, the shimmering gray ore is intended for other end products – electronics, engineering and as a white for paper production.
The strength and density of the titanium and its low weight make it extremely valuable. The element is on the US list of minerals, which are considered critical of its economy.
Ukraine has had a titanium industry since the Soviet period, but Holik has to struggle with a lack of investments and an unstable political situation.
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“The more the industry develops, the lower the production costs,” he said. “If an entrepreneur is in titanium, for example brings spare parts from abroad or bring new devices from abroad, logistics and costs are very high. If it is done by two entrepreneurs (or) three, four, it becomes a stroke.”
That is why Holik says Trump’s mineral pact has the potential to arouse investors and arouse interest, even if the details of the frame are still being cleared up.
Strategic partner
Andreii Beartiev, a geologist with a doctoral thesis and extensive experience in the private sector in Ukraine, says that the USA as a strategic partner in the development of the Ukrainian minerals.
“It’s about access to technologies here in Ukraine, because we have no … suitable technologies to develop them (mineral) fields,” he said.
The government of Ukraine appreciates up to five percent of the critical minerals in the world – including titanium, graphite, lithium and beryllium.
But when Trump or Zelensky are looking for a rapid return of their pact, they will be disappointed, says Belttiev, who served as an infantry player in the Ukrainian army in the first 18 months of war.
“The fastest way (forward) for a new project is three to five years – and that is (if) ready to push very quickly,” he said.
LeardtiV and others in the industry argue the greatest obstacle to the development of assets in the underground in Ukraine, the war remains.
Another critical mineral
Another critical mineral, graphite, is in a variety of industrial and consumer goods, from automotive parts to pens.
CBC News visited a graphite operation about 200 kilometers south of Kyiv in Kirovohrad Oblast.
Like titanium, the green -pulled ore is excavated in a quarry and separated and processed in a nearby facility. But in contrast to the Titan operation, which is constantly running, this facility 2024 has released graphite processing barely two weeks.
“Unfortunately, due to the war, you (the owners) have no opportunities and opportunities to invest more money,” said Ostap Kostyuk, CEO of Zavalivskiy Graphit, which has a 30 percent share in the company. The rest belongs to the Australian mining company Volt.
The graphite operation in Kirovohrad is also extremely old. Some of the machines used to separate and grind the ore were installed in the 1960s when the mine used thousands of workers.
Kostyuk said that the 850 tons of graphite it produced last year were only a fraction of its 13,500 tons of capacity. The future of the mine is limited without investing in the modernity of devices, the training of new workers and the development of new markets, although it has the offer of decades.
“I think the first step is to access (global) companies that come to Ukraine and open their own mines. Then we will see changes,” he said.
But Kostyuk insisted on “you have to pay for it.” He said that every step to give us companies tax or license -free is rejected not only by the country’s mining industry, but also by most Ukrainians.
He says if Trump’s minerals deal as a catalyst for the end of the war, it will be worth it. But it is too early to know.
“I hope that there are new opportunities for us, but I don’t think Trump knows what we’ll exist, and I don’t think Zelenskyy knows what we’ll have.”
Be suspected
Many Ukrainians remain suspicious of the US President’s intentions.
CBC News met a group of war veterans during a fundraising campaign in Kyiv, since the Ukrainian government was preparing for the approval of the mineral contract.
All of them had lost limbs in the current conflict.
“I don’t think there is a reason to give Americans natural resources,” said Bogdan Kovbasyuk, a 27-year-old whose left leg was blown when a Russian rocket met near his position in the Eastonbas region near his front line position.
“I don’t trust them if you look at the propaganda in the USA via Putin,” he said.
Trump said that he believes that Russia’s president wants peace and wants to end the war, an idea that mock most Ukrainians.
“I think that America has not yet deserved the right to take as many of our natural resources as they want,” said David Jung, 50, who lost a leg when a Russian armor defense rocket hit his vehicle, turned it over and held it under it.
“There must be a real balance – not just you that give us weapons.”
