Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on February 24, 2025
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's President Vladimir Putin offered the U.S. the opportunity for joint exploration of the country's rare earth metals deposits, as well as the supply of aluminum to the U.S. domestic market, outlining a future economic deal between the two countries.
U.S. President Donald Trump earlier said that "major economic development transactions with Russia" would take place. Within two hours of Trump's statement, Putin chaired a meeting with his ministers and economic advisers on rare earth metals.
"We, by the way, would be ready to offer our American partners, and when I say 'partners,' I mean not only administrative and governmental structures but also companies, if they showed interest in joint work," Putin said on state TV after the meeting.
"We undoubtedly have, I want to emphasize, significantly more resources of this kind than Ukraine," Putin added. He mentioned that a potential U.S.-Ukraine deal involving rare earth metals is not a concern for Russia.
He noted that Russian companies could supply up to 2 million tons of aluminum to the U.S. market annually if the U.S. market reopens. Russia used to provide around 15% of U.S. aluminum imports before prohibitive duties were introduced in 2023.
"This (Russian aluminium supplies) will not significantly affect price formation. However, in my opinion, it would still have a restraining influence on prices," Putin said.
Putin suggested that Russia and the U.S. could work jointly on hydropower generation and aluminum production in Russia's Krasnoyarsk region in Siberia, which is the home base for Russia's largest aluminum maker, Rusal.
"What is most important, in my opinion, is that we could consider working together with American companies in this area," Putin concluded.
In a transcript posted by the Kremlin, Putin said rare earths were a priority sector for Russia's economic development and competitiveness.
Putin said the government sought to "boost the potential of the domestic industry" extending from extraction to "manufacture of ready-made high-technology goods."
"Based on the results of the national project, the volume of output of such goods should increase several times over," he said.
(Reporting by Anton Kolodyazhnyy, Maxim Rodionov and Anastasia Lyrchikova; Writing by Gleb Bryanski; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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