Treasury Secretary Bessent: US-Ukrainian economic deal is dead in the water



President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to Washington, D.C., on Friday to finalize a deal that would afford America access to some of his country's natural wealth in exchange for investments in a reconstruction fund and a U.S. economic presence that could serve as a deterrent to future aggression from without.

Following his heated exchange with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office, Zelenskyy was reportedly told to leave the White House before the agreement could be signed. Trump noted on Truth Social, "He can come back when he is ready for Peace."

According to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the so-called minerals deal — which he referred to as a "general economic agreement" — is off the table in the interim.

Bessent, who was present for the ill-fated meeting with the Ukrainian president as well as for previous attempts at closing the deal, told CBS News' Margaret Brennan on Sunday that "it is impossible to have an economic deal without a peace deal. The sine qua non for an economic deal is that Ukrainian leadership wants a peace deal."

Zelenskyy confirmed Wednesday that he was unsuccessful in pushing for an explicit security guarantee in the deal from the United States, reported the BBC.

'This is one of the biggest own goals in diplomatic history.'

"I wanted to have a sentence on security guarantees for Ukraine, and it's important that it's there," said Zelenskyy.

"I want to find a NATO path or something similar," he continued, adding, "If we don't get security guarantees, we won't have a ceasefire, nothing will work, nothing."

Although Bessent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and others in the administration figured they had made clear to the Ukrainian leadership that peace was a prerequisite for greater American involvement and that the deal was itself a de facto security guarantee, Zelenskyy cast doubt on the value of diplomacy during the Friday meeting, citing the possibility that Russian President Vladimir Putin might violate a ceasefire.

The treasury secretary told Brennan that the initial plan was for Zelenskyy to join around 16 individuals for lunch where the deal would be signed after the press conference in the Oval Office.

"We were already set up to sign the deal," said Bessent. "President Zelenskyy has thrown off the sequencing."

"Let me tell you the most tragic part of this," continued the treasury secretary. "President Trump's idea for this economic arrangement was to further intertwine the American people and Ukrainian people and show no daylight — to show the Russian leadership that there was no daylight. And President Zelenskyy came into the Oval Office and tried to relitigate in front of the world the deal."

Bessent suggested that absent a desire on Zelenskyy's part to strike a peace deal, the economic deal is dead in the water.

"I think we have to see if President Zelenskyy wants to proceed," said Bessent. "What's the use in having an economic agreement that's going to be rendered moot if he wants the fighting to continue?"

Bessent told Fox News' Laura Ingraham hours after the foiled deal closing, "This is one of the biggest own goals in diplomatic history."

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Zelenskyy to sign minerals deal at White House Friday — without security guarantees



President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to travel to the White House Friday — a week after President Donald Trump called him a "dictator" — to sign a deal that would afford America access to some of Ukraine's buried natural wealth in exchange for investments in a reconstruction fund.

Trump noted Wednesday that it would be "a very big agreement."

While there was no mention in a draft of the deal of Ukraine paying the U.S. back for the hundreds of billions of dollars in aid that Kyiv has received in recent years, there are similarly no concrete security guarantees on America's part.

According to a draft of the deal obtained by CNN, the two countries plan to create a jointly managed "Reconstruction Investment Fund" that would collect and reinvest revenues resulting from the monetization of relevant Ukrainian-owned "deposits of minerals, hydrocarbons, oil, natural gas, and other extractable minerals."

Mineral resources already making money for Kyiv, such as the activities of Naftogaz, will not be not part of the deal.

As of Wednesday morning, the proposed deal specified that the Ukrainian government would contribute 50% of all revenues earned from such state-owned natural resource assets to the fund. Contributions will be routinely reinvested in Ukraine in the interest of promoting the nation's "safety, security, and prosperity."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed in an interview last week that when he, Vice President JD Vance, and Zelenskyy previously discussed a version of the deal that would see the U.S. "paid back some of the money taxpayers have given," Zelenskyy said he was on board and would run it through his "legislative process." However, Zelenskyy instead went public, telling reporters that he rejected the deal.

'I want to find a NATO path or something similar.'

Ukrainian officials told the Financial Times (U.K.) that Kyiv proved ready to sign the agreement after the U.S. dropped demands for a right to $500 billion in mineral wealth.

Although the draft noted that the U.S. supports Ukraine's efforts to obtain security guarantees and would maintain a long-term financial commitment to the country's development, it makes no mention of America providing such guarantees.

Trump said during his Wednesday Cabinet meeting, "I'm not going to make security guarantees beyond very much. We're going to have Europe do that."

According to the BBC, Zelenskyy confirmed Wednesday he had pushed for a security guarantee from the U.S. but came up empty-handed.

"I wanted to have a sentence on security guarantees for Ukraine, and it's important that it's there," said Zelenskyy.

When asked whether he'd abandon the deal if he did not get what he wanted, Zelenskyy told reporters, "I want to find a NATO path or something similar," adding, "If we don't get security guarantees, we won't have a ceasefire, nothing will work, nothing."

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Graham says Ukraine has trillions of dollars of 'critical mineral assets' and could be 'the best business partner'



GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said that Ukraine has trillions of dollars worth of "critical mineral assets" and could be "the best business partner we ever dreamed of."

"If we help Ukraine now, they can become the best business partner we ever dreamed of. That $10 to $12 trillion dollars of critical mineral assets could be used by Ukraine and the West, not given to Putin and China. This is a very big deal how Ukraine ends," he said during an appearance on "60 Minutes."

'This war mongering globalist needs to be replaced in the US Senate.'

"Ukraine has trillions of dollars worth of critical minerals in their country. Vladimir Putin cannot be allowed to access that money and those resources because he will share it with China," a post on Graham's @LindseyGrahamSC X account reads.

GOP Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio responded to the post by tweeting, "So, from the regime change coup until today, the real issue was Yanukovych’s 2013 agreement to trade more with Russia than the EU?" Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky shared Davidson's post.

"This war mongering globalist needs to be replaced in the US Senate," Amy Kremer tweeted in response to Graham. "He and his globalists cronies are the ones that get us into and keep us in these forever wars. The perpetual cycle must stop. Focus on America and our resources. Stop focusing on the rest of the world."

During his appearance on "60 Minutes," Graham also suggested that Russia should be declared a state sponsor of terrorism under American law. He also said that Russian money should be seized.

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Billionaires go treasure hunting in Greenland for rare minerals needed for electric cars — and they may have climate change to thank



Some of the most notable billionaires on the planet have recently invested a lot of money to explore Greenland in the hopes of unearthing rare minerals needed for electric cars, and many are crediting so-called climate change for the opportunity.

Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, and Jeff Bezos have each invested heavily in Kobold Metals, a mineral exploration start-up company based in California. Kobold Metals, in turn, has partnered with Bluejay Mining in the effort to explore remote areas of Greenland that may have a treasure trove of the minerals needed for electric vehicles.

“We are looking for a deposit that will be the first or second-largest most significant nickel and cobalt deposit in the world,” said Kurt House, CEO of Kobold Metals.

So far, 30 people — including geologists, geophysicists, cooks, pilots and mechanics — have ventured to Disko Island and Nuussuaq Peninsula along the southwestern coast of the country's mainland in search of those deposits and others.

Until recently, these areas of Greenland have been inaccessible to miners because ice prevented them from shipping the heavy equipment they needed to do their jobs. But higher temperatures, which some attribute to man-made climate change, have caused some of this ice to melt, freeing waterways through which mining companies can transport equipment.

“It is a concern to witness the consequences and impacts from the climate changes in Greenland,” Bluejay Mining CEO Bo Møller Stensgaard said. “But, generally speaking, climate changes overall have made exploration and mining in Greenland easier and more accessible.”

Mike Sfraga, the chair of the United States Arctic Research Commission, also added, "As these trends continue well into the future, there is no question more land will become accessible and some of this land may carry the potential for mineral development."

Inhabitat, a website that claims to cover "environmental news and the latest in sustainable design," claims that the ice reserves found in the ice shelves of Greenland have recently been melting at a faster rate than they did in the previous 12 millennia. If so, and if these climate changes are the result of human behaviors, then the climate "crisis" man has caused may have permitted man the means of combatting it by offering other mineral sources that will be used to build more electric vehicles.

The Bluejay Mining experts are already busy taking soil samples and mapping out the area using drones and helicopters so that they can determine the spots that will provide them with the richest mineral yields.

The Greenland government insists that it supports both the mining venture and the efforts to protect the environment. "The government of Greenland supports the responsible, sustainable, and economically viable development of their natural resources to include mining of a broad range of minerals," Sfraga said.

Even This Left-Wing Report Sounds The Alarm: U.S. Is Way Too Dependent On Communist China For Minerals

'The U.S., in particular, will likely have to update and amend its mining regulatory regime,' authors at the liberal Brookings Institute wrote.

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To meet its clean energy goals, the US might go mining in the rainforest



The United States is in a mad dash to usher in the era of green energy as it works to increase its lithium reserves and reduce dependency on fossil fuels.

However, in order to reach its clean energy goals, the U.S. is going to need far more lithium than it currently has in its possession, PBS reported.

However, in order for the U.S. to grow its mineral reserves so that it can produce green technology, it must participate in an extraction process that is wildly unclean and faces challenges from environmentalists, indigenous peoples interest groups, and burdensome government regulations.

There is also the issue that there is only one active lithium mine in the continental U.S. — despite lithium reserves being abundant across the globe. The lithium available in this Nevada mine reportedly isn’t enough to meet the growing amount required to develop rechargeable lithium-ion batteries commonly found in electric vehicles.

Currently, much of the world’s lithium supply is sourced from South America and Australia, with China dominating the global manufacturing and distribution of lithium-ion batteries. The U.S. currently produces less than 2% of the world’s lithium supply despite having nearly 4% of the estimated global lithium reserve.

“Nobody really foresaw this huge spike in demand,” Tim Crowley, the vice president of government affairs for Lithium Nevada, said. “We owned the lithium space for a long time, and we forfeited it to China.”

In order to increase lithium production, the U.S. must either expand mining and processing operations in places like Chile — home to the world’s largest known lithium reserves — which could involve the removal and destruction of parts of the Chilean rainforest — or expand its domestic production efforts, which would require open-pit mining or brine extraction to force the lithium-rich brine to the surface.

Either way, activist groups like the far-left Sierra Club have warned that increased lithium production efforts run the risk of harming lands sacred to indigenous peoples and endangering fragile ecosystems that are home to some of the world’s rarest and most endangered species.

However, Glenn Miller, emeritus professor of environmental sciences at the University of Nevada, suggested that increased lithium production efforts could, in the long run, be better for the environment by reducing global dependency on fossil fuel-burning cars.

He said, “A domestic source has tremendous value. Then we can do things that only China is doing with production.”

The Biden administration has planned for 500,000 EV charging stations to be erected throughout the country as one of its infrastructure goals. This, and the administration’s push for more American companies to produce and more American citizens to purchase EVs, will require a substantial amount of lithium.

Biden’s Electric Vehicle Plan Without Mining Expansion Is A Big Win For Beijing
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Biden’s Electric Vehicle Plan Without Mining Expansion Is A Big Win For Beijing

President Joe Biden wants half of all cars sold in the U.S. to be electric within 10 years. Without new mines, China will maintain grip on battery supply.