MINEX Forum

Tag: Ukraine critical minerals

  • Critical Metals Corp Begins Investing in Ukraine’s Velta Titanium Assets as $250 Million Programme Advances

    Critical Metals Corp Begins Investing in Ukraine’s Velta Titanium Assets as $250 Million Programme Advances

    Critical Metals Corp executive director Tony Sage has visited the production assets of Ukrainian titanium holding Velta, confirming that the US-listed company has begun directing investment into the assets as it absorbs European Lithium in a deal valued at $835 million.

    The visit signals that the corporate restructuring — which originally envisaged Velta Holding being acquired by European Lithium before the transaction structure shifted to Critical Metals absorbing European Lithium instead — has not disrupted the strategic partnership or the agreed development plans for a critical raw materials cluster in Ukraine. According to Velta, the strategic content of the partnership and the development roadmap remain unchanged.

    First-stage financing has already been directed toward the rapid modernisation of the Birzulyvskyi mining and processing complex. The partnership is now moving to the next phase, involving capital re-equipment of the complex and preparation for the development of the Likarivskyi deposit, which will serve as the raw material base for the planned CRM cluster. The two sides are currently preparing the next stage of a four-year, $250 million investment programme.

    The longer-term objective is to build a vertically integrated production chain running from critical material extraction through to the manufacture of high-value-added end products for global industrial markets — positioning Ukraine as a contributor to Western critical minerals supply chains outside China.

  • Ukraine Could Develop Critical Minerals Four Times Faster Than European Average as EU Export Credit Agencies Move to Finance Projects

    Ukraine Could Develop Critical Minerals Four Times Faster Than European Average as EU Export Credit Agencies Move to Finance Projects

    Ukraine has the potential to integrate into European critical raw material supply chains far faster than a typical mining project timeline would suggest, with the country’s vast inherited geological data base and existing industrial assets positioning it as a near-term contributor to the EU’s minerals strategy, according to senior business and government officials.

    Speaking at a recent forum, Serhiy Voitsekhovsky, board member of BGV Group Management, argued that while launching a mining project from scratch globally takes an average of 17 years, Ukraine could achieve the same in roughly four — a fourfold acceleration driven primarily by the country’s extensive Soviet-era geological records, which are now being actively digitised and updated. BGV Group has invested more than €150 million of its own capital to demonstrate that Ukraine holds not only lithium and graphite but also rubidium, tantalum and rare earth elements — materials the European technology sector identifies as critically needed.

    On the government side, Deputy Minister of Economy Ihor Bezkaravayny confirmed that Ukraine is preparing large state-owned assets for privatisation, including facilities that produce titanium sponge and aluminium plants. The objective, he said, is not simply to sell the facilities but to integrate them into high-technology production chains aligned with European industrial needs.

    The financing architecture is also taking shape. European Commission representative Anna Yarosh-Fris confirmed that the EU is already connecting the export credit agencies of Poland, Finland and France to finance Ukrainian critical minerals projects, with the explicit goal of turning Ukrainian subsoil into a shared asset of the EU’s internal market.