SIMFEROPOL, March 5. /TASS/. Potential development of Ukraine's rare metal deposits requires preliminary geological exploration, which will take several years, Alexander Tishchenko, chief specialist of the Andrusov Geological Museum under the Vernadsky Crimean Federal University, told TASS.
"As for all this American talk, which was started by [Republican Senator] Lindsey Graham (included in Russia’s list of terrorists and extremists - TASS) saying that Ukraine has deposits worth billions of dollars and Russia is fighting exclusively for mineral resources - I will tell you this: Ukraine has nothing that cannot be found in the geological formations of Russia with rare exceptions. But there is one main point: an object is considered a mineral resource only if in addition to the presence of some mineral wealth it offers the ability to economically develop and enrich it," he said.
According to the scientist, in the Soviet times Ukraine was one of the leading mining republics of the Soviet Union due to the fact that it had a very convenient geographical location and was provided with electricity, roads, scientific schools and labor resources, so mineral resources have always played one of the main roles in the industry of Ukraine. But despite the fact that about 2,000 different mineral deposits were discovered on the territory of Ukraine, only about 40% of them were developed in Soviet times. Most of the solid mineral deposits (except for titanium, iron and manganese deposits) were small or difficult to enrich, so they were not developed and were poorly studied.
"Therefore, one can talk about the possibility of developing Ukrainian deposits only after a serious geological and especially technological study. It is necessary to carry out a set of geological exploration works," Tishchenko said.
The expert noted that during the Soviet era, the geological school in Ukraine was seriously developed, but in the 2000s, funding for this area was significantly cut.
"The peak of funding was in the early 2000s under Yulia Tymoshenko (Ukrainian Prime Minister at that time - TASS). Then, for literally two years, there were serious investments in geological exploration in Ukraine. After that funding decreased and almost vanished. The idea was: we will buy everything we need. This is a suicidal idea," the expert said.