Posted on 13 Mar 2025
Critical minerals investment fund TechMet is reportedly looking to develop a lithium project in Ukraine.
It could be one of the first mines to be set up under the Ukraine-US critical minerals deal, which is expected to be announced soon. After talks between presidents Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump fell through earlier this month, senior Ukrainian and US officials are meeting this week.
Washington has been asking Kyiv for critical minerals, such as lithium and rare earths, in exchange for military support in the war with Russia, Kallanish notes. Ukraine is believed to hold significant reserves, but more surveys need to be carried out to understand the quantities and whether mining them would be economical.
TechMet, based in Dublin, is partly owned by the US government through the US International Development Finance Corporation. Other shareholders are the Qatar Investment Authority, S2G Ventures, Mercuria, and Lansdowne Partners.
The firm has been interested in the Dobra lithium project in Ukraine since 2023, the Financial Times reports, and plans to bid for it when Kyiv opens the tender process to award a mining licence. Dobra, located in the Kirovograd region, is considered a major lithium deposit in Ukraine, alongside Shevchenkivske in the Donetsk region.
While the plan is not dependent on the Ukraine-US deal, ceo Brian Menell says the agreement “would certainly enhance our interest, and would create a framework that would justify doing more, bigger, quicker.”
TechMet’s investment partner in Dobra is Ronald Lauder, a billionaire heir to the Estée Lauder cosmetics company and friend of Trump. He is rumoured to have convinced Trump that the US should annex Danish territory Greenland citing national security reasons.
Source:Kallanish
