CNN’s Bill Weir: Companies Would Have to Pour Billions of Dollars and Spend Decades Just Getting the Infrastructure in Place for Ukraine’s Minerals

EXCERPT:

WEIR: “And so President Zelenskyy is saying, 'Come to Ukraine and we can provide a lot of these sorts of things.' But not all of these are equal. Like, titanium for example. Pretty big reserves in the western part of the country, easy to get to. But lithium, relatively tiny little pockets, and half of it, Pam, is behind Russian occupied territory lines right now, a lot more complicated. And when it comes to nickel and cobalt, as well, it‘s very complicated in terms of getting it out. And then before the Russian invasion, something like 80% of these deposits had even been exploited. Ukraine is very, very in the nascent stages of major industrial mining. So regardless of whatever deal is struck today, investors from the U.S. and other countries would have to pour hundreds of millions, billions of dollars, and spend up to decades just getting the infrastructure in place, especially in a country where half of their electricity grid has been devastated by this war. And, for example, the lithium in Ukraine is much harder to get because of the geology there. The rocks are different than in Chile and Australia, where it‘s easier to produce. So a lot of complications around the plans, and certainly not enough production to have any difference in this conflict right now."