A possible agreement on the joint development of rare earth metals deposits by Moscow and Washington could be detrimental to Russia’s Indigenous communities.
Critical for the production of electronics, military equipment, and renewable energy sources, rare earth metals are primarily located in Russia’s regions inhabited by Indigenous communities, including the republics of Buryatia, Sakha (Yakutia), and Komi, as well as Finland-bordering Murmansk region.
The extraction of rare earth metals could destroy entire ecosystems on these territories.
Developing deposits requires the removal of vast amounts of land; and toxic substances like arsenic, lead, and other heavy metals often leak during the mining process, contaminating vast volumes of water, air, and soil.
At present, Russia imports up to 90% of its high-purity rare earth metals. The only Russian deposit where commercial extraction of these precious metals takes place today is the Lovozero deposit in the Murmansk region.
Developing new deposits would, in turn, be a challenging undertaking: nearly all of them are located in regions with harsh climatic conditions, making extraction expensive and difficult. Such projects are impossible to realize without major investments in infrastructure and technology.
The Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline, which was designed to deliver larger volumes of gas to China, encountered the same issues that could arise during the development of Russia’s rare earth metals deposits: high costs and extreme climatic conditions.
And just like with the Power of Siberia 2, the key issue in a possible rare earth metals deal is the rights of Indigenous peoples. The regions rich in these metals are the ancestral lands of Russia’s Indigenous peoples, meaning that any attempts to develop these deposits will be met with resistance from locals, whose rights are consistently overlooked in similar international agreements.
But while problems with infrastructure developments, financial investments, and Indigenous rights could be major obstacles to a U.S.-Russia rare earth metals deal, I doubt such a deal will happen at all.
Beyond practical and financial difficulties, such a project requires a fundamental thing currently lacking in Russia — political stability.