{"id":31131,"date":"2022-08-02T14:45:38","date_gmt":"2022-08-02T12:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catapa.be\/?p=31131"},"modified":"2022-08-03T10:35:06","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T08:35:06","slug":"a-materials-war-ukraine-and-the-race-for-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catapa.be\/en\/a-materials-war-ukraine-and-the-race-for-resources\/","title":{"rendered":"A MATERIALS WAR: UKRAINE AND THE RACE FOR RESOURCES"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Wars are both political and material. Hidden underneath Ukraine\u2019s fertile land are vast amounts of resources that global powers desperately want. The risk of a resource grab sold to the public as \u201crebuilding Ukraine\u201d is very real, write Robin Roels, Diego Marin and Nick Meynen.<\/h4>\n

Wars have been fought and lost for access to energy, be it in the form of resources such as fossil fuels, or control of strategic industries like metallurgy, or agricultural lands. For example, oil may not have been\u00a0the\u00a0<\/em>reason for the Iraq war, but it sure was\u00a0a<\/em>\u00a0reason, and a\u00a0major one<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The hunger for Ukraine\u2019s resources<\/h4>\n

To feed the motor of continuous economic expansion, countries need ever more resources. Ukraine is one of the world\u2019s most resource-rich countries. The Donbas and Mariupol regions alone contain in \u2018commercially viable quantities<\/a>\u2019, a large majority of the most used minerals and metals in today\u2019s economies.<\/p>\n

A part of the\u00a03 to 11.5 trillion dollars<\/a>\u00a0worth of resources in Ukraine is now under Russian boots. This includes elements such as tantalum and niobium that are used for green(er) technologies as well as aviation, transportation and construction. As the amounts of elements like tantalum and niobium are state secrets, it is hard to estimate how much of it is now in Russian hands, but these materials are found in Donetsk and south of Zaporizhzhia, which are occupied by Putin\u2019s invading army.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]https:\/\/twitter.com\/ForeignPolicy\/status\/1520885927241043969[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]In a complete turn-around from the 1980s manufacturing exodus to Southern countries, the US and the EU are now promoting on-shoring or\u00a0friend-shoring<\/a>: the strategy to get resources from their own territories and those of allies. Eight months before the start of the war, in July 2021, European Commission Vice-President Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d had\u00a0launched a strategic partnership on raw materials with Ukraine<\/a>, with the purpose of \u201cachieving a closer integration of raw materials and batteries value chains\u201d. Ukraine was supposed to become a car battery hub for the EU.<\/p>\n

In recent years, Ukraine has been busily expanding investment in mining. UkraineInvest, the government investment promotion office, received\u00a0more than 100 investment proposals<\/a>\u00a0from across Europe and North America of up to $10 billion to develop 24 major mineral locations.<\/p>\n

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EU, Ukraine sign \u2018strategic partnership\u2019 on raw materials https:\/\/t.co\/NsiAHx7Xs9<\/a><\/p>\n

— Euractiv Energy & Environment (@eaGreenEU) July 13, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n