Tag Archives: aluminum

The Deal Is Signed, Let’s See What Happens Next

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On May 1, Zero Hedge reported the following:

Update(1740): After some last-minute hiccups which threatened to derail it, the US and Ukraine have finally signed the much-anticipated and controversial minerals deal.

“The deal will grant the US privileged access to new investment projects to develop Ukraine’s natural resources including aluminum, graphite, oil and natural gas,” the breaking Bloomberg note says.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko signed it late in the day Wednesday in Washington, after the US side demanded that all aspects on the table be agreed to by Kiev. Below are some known details of the landmark agreement via Axios:

    • The government-to-government agreement would establish a joint fund, with each country contributing 50% of the financing and future U.S. military assistance to Ukraine counting as a contribution to the fund.
    • The fund will be governed jointly and will have three U.S. members and three Ukrainian members on its board.
    • The money in the fund will be used for investments in the extraction of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals, oil and gas. The revenue will be split 50/50.
    • Kachka said the agreement gives the U.S. preferential access to investments in any operator that extracts rare earths in Ukraine and the first right of refusal for such investments.

Update(1045ET): Another minerals deal headline that wasn’t… not for the first time, a Ukrainian delegation’s plane may have been literally rerouted mid-air amid Wednesday reports that the Trump-backed deal was to be signed in Washington within ‘hours’. Financial Times reports:

Ukraine’s first deputy prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, has flown to Washington to sign the deal with US treasury secretary Scott Bessent, said three Ukrainian officials. But problems arose as Svyrydenko’s plane headed to Washington, and Bessent’s team told her she should “be ready to sign all agreements, or go back home”, said three people familiar with the matter. 

Apparently the Zelensky government was not ready to sign onto all that the Trump administration required. This even after the US reportedly dropped conditions related to Ukraine paying back debt for prior US military or financial assistance.

I suspect that one of the purposes of this deal is to put pressure on President Putin to come to a peace agreement. For the sake of everyone in the region, that needs to happen.

This Explains A Lot

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Yesterday The U.K. Daily Mail posted an article about one of the causes of the rise of sea level in Greenland.

The article reports:

Melting of ice in central Greenland is being accelerated by the heat of molten rocks rising from the core–mantle boundary, adding to sea-level rise, a study has found.

Researchers from Japan mapped out the extent and branches of the so-called ‘Greenland plume’ — the rising flow of molten rock ascending beneath the island.

Geothermal activity is abundant in the North Atlantic region. Iceland and the Norwegian island of Jan Mayen have active volcanoes with their own mantle plumes.

Iceland gets its electricity from the geothermal energy underneath the island and by using dams to capture glacial meltwater. Because energy is abundant and cheap there, it is one of the major places in the world where aluminum is made.

The article includes the following illustration:

The article concludes:

With their initial study complete, the researchers are hoping to examine the thermal process in greater detail.

‘This study revealed the larger picture, so examining the plumes at a more localized level will reveal more information,’ said Professor Toyokuni.

The full findings of the study were published in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Solid Earth. 

When you put something warm under ice, the ice melts. That is not man-made global warming. The existence of the molten rocks explains a lot.