The Shevchenko Lithium Ore Field is laden with an estimated 13.8 million tons of lithium ores with a pure lithium oxide content of up to 207,000 tons, according to a 2018 Ukrainian State Geology and Subsoil Service study.
Australian-registered, British businessman-owned mining company European Lithium announced in late 2021 that it was in the process of “securing” the Shevchenko field for itself.
In January 2024, the company said that had been granted a 20-year special mining permit for the site, with work to begin upon the approval of shareholders.
The Shevchenko deposit’s loss is a major blow to the European Union’s lithium needs, and its rare earth mineral needs in general.
Nearly all modern all-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid use lithium-ion batteries, which contain lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite. Similar (but smaller) lithium-ion batteries power portable electronics, including cell phones and computers.
Without a cheap source of lithium, the EU’s automotive giants will fall further behind China and the US in the race for EV supremacy.
Facing the inevitable collapse of its lithium ambitions in Ukraine, European media is already eyeing Latin America for its mineral and rare earths needs.
Shevchenko’s liberation is also the latest blow in Brussels’ mostly self-inflicted recession and deindustrialization crisis – triggered by the loss of cheap and dependable Russian energy, which have made the EU’s industrial output increasingly uncompetitive against the US and China. Russia warned this would happen all the way back in the spring of 2022.