Putin offers to sell rare earth minerals to the US, including from Russian-occupied Ukraine

Vladimir Putin on Monday evening offered to sell Russia’s rare earth minerals to American companies, including those in Russian-occupied Ukraine, further underscoring his message to Donald Trump that there’s profit to be made in Russia.

“We are ready to work with our partners, including the Americans,” Putin said, adding Russia could resume selling aluminium to the US.

“We undoubtedly have, I want to emphasize, significantly more resources of this kind than Ukraine,” the Russian president said.

Putin said that potential rare earth metals exploration deals could also be extended to deposits in territory in eastern Ukraine that Russia occupies after three years of military action.

Earlier on Monday, Trump told reporters in Washington that “major economic development transactions with Russia” would take place. Within two hours of the US president’s statement, Putin chaired an unannounced meeting with his ministers and economic advisers on rare earth metals.

Russia has the world’s fifth-largest reserves of rare earth metals, according to the US Geological Survey data, after China, Brazil, India and Australia.