Trump: US deal with Ukraine's Zelenskyy over 'raw earth' looks to be on hold

President Donald Trump wants Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to make a deal with the U.S. over the country's "raw earth" minerals.

But what does that actually mean?

Zelenskyy came to the White House on Friday under expectations he and Trump would reach a deal with Ukraine that would put 50% of future revenue from mineral resources, oil, natural gas, and other materials into a joint Ukraine-U.S. investment fund.

Trump described the potential deal on Friday, saying, "We don’t know exactly how much because we’re going to be putting some money in a fund that we’re going to get from the raw earth that we’re going to be taking and sharing in terms of revenues, so it’s going to be a lot of money,” Bloomberg reported.

Potential profits from the deal could satisfy Trump's request that Ukraine repay the U.S. for its help defending the country since Russia's invasion in 2022.

This wasn't the first time Trump described the deal as involving "raw earth." Earlier this week, Trump suggested Zelenskyy would sign an agreement in Washington on Friday. "We've pretty much negotiated our deal on raw Earth and various other things," said Trump on Tuesday.

And again on Friday, Trump said the deal covers minerals vital to industry. "This has just about every component of the raw Earth that we need for computers for all of the things we do. This puts us in great shape," he said The National News Desk reported.

Ukraine doesn't currently produce any rare earth metals but, according to Ukraine's Institute of Geology, possesses large deposits of such minerals, including lanthanum, cerium, neodymium and yttrium. Detailed data about those reserves is classified, Reuters reported.

Ukraine also has one of the largest lithium reserves in Europe – amounting to about 3% of global total reserves – but is not currently mining it, NPR reported. Lithium is used in batteries for smartphones and many other devices.

So, what is "raw earth"? Well, that's a good question. Here's a possible answer. Rare-earth metals and elements such as lanthanum and lutetium are raw materials of which there are limited concentrated deposits, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

What President Trump may be doing is using a shorthand phrase of "raw earth" to cover all the rare-earth elements and raw materials covered by the proposed agreement.

That could be a suitable description because Ukraine has a lot of raw materials on its own. “About 5% of all the world’s ‘critical raw materials’ are located in Ukraine, which occupies only 0.4 percent of the Earth’s surface,” Ukraine’s deputy minister of environmental protection and natural resources, Svetlana Grinchuk, said in 2022, reported CNBC.

Whether the deal will come about remains to be seen before the planned joint press conference with Trump and Zelenskyy, which was canceled after a discordant meeting with Trump, Zelenskyy and Vice President JD Vance. During the meeting, Vance told Zelenskyy he was being "disrespectful" to Trump and should be thanking the U.S. for its support, rather than lecturing it on the cause of the war.

Contributing: Francesca Chambers, Joey Garrison, and Mary Walrath-Holdridge.

Follow Mike Snider on Threads, Bluesky and X: mikegsnider & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider.

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