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Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary. In June 2022, the operators of Ukraine, Slovakia, and Hungary agreed on introducing a joint coordinated capacity distribution on Ukrainian borders based on the Joint Allocation Office's electronic auction platform.
9.1.11 Metallurgy & mining sector news
Ukraine began exporting mined uranium to Canada. According to the state company Energoatom, Ukrainian uranium will be used to produce nuclear fuel for the needs of domestic nuclear power plants at Cameco facilities in Canada. It is noted that the agreement with Cameco is for the entire volume of uranium extracted from the Eastern Mining and Enrichment Plant to be sent to Canada for its further conversion into natural uranium hexafluoride (UF6). This is necessary before sending it for enrichment to Ukraine's other strategic partners, URENCO and Westinghouse, for nuclear fuel production. "These processes for processing nuclear material are not yet available in Ukraine. But we are working on creating appropriate capacities," emphasized President of Energoatom Petro Kotin. The contract also allows for supplying the Zaporizhzhia NPP with uranium hexafluoride as soon as Ukraine regains control over the nuclear plant. The energy minister, Herman Galushchenko, emphasized that Ukraine works to increase uranium production for its needs and to oust Russia from world markets.
Ukraine can replace the Russian Federation in the global titanium market.
According to industry experts, Russia is critically dependent on the raw materials for titanium despite the wealth of its subsoil and natural resources. For decades, Russian enterprises covered the need for these raw materials through supplies from Ukraine and then processed and manufactured end-use products with high added value and exported them to the West. At the same time, Ukrainian processing facilities remained idle and ceased operations over time. Ukraine's titanium industry turned into a raw material appendage of Russian industry. It is noted that Ukraine is in the top ten of the global ranking for titanium ore reserves, with 5.9 million tons of ilmenite reserves and 2.5 million tons of Ukrainian rutile reserves. In addition, Ukraine is essentially the only country in the world with a full production cycle for metallic titanium products. These factors create a real opportunity for Ukraine to replace Russia in supplying metal titanium products for Western enterprises.
Despite the war, 75% of industry companies continue to invest in Ukrainian subsoil. According to an EBA study, among the surveyed companies of the association, 74% continue to invest in Ukrainian subsoil during the war, 18% have not yet made an investment decision, and only 8% are currently not investing. Since the war began, 61% have invested up to $5M in Ukrainian subsoil, and 21% have invested more than $5M. At the same time, 82% of respondents consider the subsoil use market attractive for investment, and Ukraine's resource potential is estimated at 7.85 points on a 10-point scale. According to businesses, such minerals as titanium, lithium, hydrocarbons (oil, gas, condensate), and iron ore have the greatest potential in Ukraine. At the same time, 51% of respondents agree that insurance for the risks of capital loss in war and post-war period will stimulate the attraction of investments in subsoil exploitation. In addition, 23% of mining companies plan to demand compensation for the damage caused by Russia to their assets. In 13% of businesses, subsurface exploitation facilities have received various types of damage since the beginning of the war, and in 18%, there are facilities
81 UKRAINE Country Report October 2023 www.intellinews.com