Attention to rare earth metals found in Ukraine has increased dramatically after the US president's statements on the subject. We interviewed experts to find out whether the Crimean peninsula is of interest to American business in terms of mining.

Geologists currently know nothing about the presence of rare earths in the bowels of the peninsula in attractive and affordable quantities. However, the results of one study conducted by the Institute of Biology of the South Seas impressed even the scientists themselves. Studying mollusks in the Black and Azov Seas, researchers found that the shells of these animals are abnormally enriched in scandium, yttrium, lanthanum, europium, and terbium.

“The accumulation of rare earth elements reaches the level of several parts per million,” says Serhii Kapranov, PhD in Chemistry, ”That is, each kilogram of mollusks contains about two milligrams of rare earth elements. Scientists explain the phenomenon by the large number of industrial enterprises that have been polluting the surrounding rivers with various emissions for a long time, which eventually end up in the sea and settle in the shells.

Does this mean that it will be possible to extract rare earth metals from Crimean mussels and rapans? Experts are very skeptical about this issue. “The problem is not even in the extraction technologies - this is a solvable problem. But in terms of feasibility, let's say a ton of raw materials will ideally yield two grams of scandium. On the American market, it costs less than eight dollars,” explains a chemistry professor at a Simferopol university.

Chemists are also skeptical about the statements of the collaborators from Armyansk, who have been talking for several years about the resumption of the operation of the plant for the extraction of rare earth metals from titanium dioxide production waste of the local chemical giant, the Titan plant. According to scientists, the profitability of such extraction is on the same level as shell processing.

But what could really be of interest to American business is the oil and gas reserves on the Black Sea shelf off the coast of Crimea. According to various estimates, the projected and prospective resources of the Black Sea shelf are about two trillion cubic meters of gas and more than a trillion tons of oil with gas condensate. The most promising area on the peninsula is the Prykerchenska shelf with a forecasted potential of one hundred million tons of oil. The field once attracted the interest of such well-known oil majors as British Shell and American ExxonMobil.  

“It was a time of ambitious plans and amazing prospects. When the Boyko rigs appeared, we were already closely preparing for the comprehensive development of the Subotin field and, together with the Americans, were looking at the deepwater areas of the Skifska area. But then the Russians came, and everything came to a standstill,” recalls my interlocutor Oleksiy. He has worked all his life for the Crimean company Chornomornaftogaz, which is now the monopolist of hydrocarbon production on the peninsula.

According to Oleksiy, in the first years of the occupation, the company's employees were promised large-scale development projects that included not only active offshore exploration but also the construction of processing plants. It was planned to build an oil refinery and a gas chemical plant, as well as create a transport and logistics production center on Lake Tobechykske by 2020. None of the promised projects was realized.

Out of fear of being sanctioned, Russian companies have not shown any visible interest in developing the Black Sea shelf over this time. Not even the Russian Gazprom, whose investments Crimean gas producers were counting on. “Instead of real prospects for development, increasing production, installing deepwater platforms and assessing the potential of the Azov Sea, we have received a decade of stagnation at the facilities that Ukraine has built.  And the country that ranks second in the world in gas production and third in oil production has done nothing. If I told you this eleven years ago, you wouldn't have believed me,” Oleksiy laments.

He is convinced that hydrocarbon reserves around the occupied peninsula will be of no less interest to American business than rare earth metals. Especially if we take into account the stated intentions of the Americans to increase their share in the European gas market, as well as the gas transportation infrastructure of Ukraine, which is literally at hand, with its gas pipelines and capacious gas storage facilities. Another important aspect is the high technological potential of American companies capable of producing at depths of over one hundred and twenty meters.

In an interview with a Ukrainian publication, Ukrainian paleontologist and academician Petro Gozhyk focused on the prospects of the shelf off the coast of Crimea. “According to all geological indicators, the structures are very promising, they can produce large deposits. For example, the Palass structure is roughly estimated to have about 75 billion cubic meters of natural gas. In total, there are more than thirty similar structures in the Prykerchenska area,” the academician said.

Thus, it can be safely stated that the occupied peninsula is in no way inferior to other regions in terms of valuable resources and, in the event of de-occupation, will repay many times over all the efforts and costs of the “sponsors” spent on its liberation.

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