Even after Trump deal Ukraine faces long uncertain road to mining boom

LONDON/KOPANKY, Ukraine - On snow-covered fields in central Ukraine, where some of the countrys biggest proven lithium deposits are located, a small team of ecological consultants drop sensors into holes in the earth to measure water levels.

The environmental survey, contracted by the small Ukrainian mining company that holds the licence, UkrLithiumMining, comes years ahead of any mining operations at the undeveloped site.

It underlines how much work is still to be done before a much-vaunted minerals deal between Ukraine and the United States generates significant revenue for either side.

President Donald Trump sees the minerals deal - which he is due to clinch on Feb 28 with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington - as Americas way of earning back some of the money it has given to Ukraine in the form of financial aid and weaponry to help fight Russia, which invaded three years ago.

For Mr Denys Alyoshin, chief strategy officer of UkrLithiumMining, the Washington agreement is a step in the right direction because US engagement makes Ukraine less vulnerable to Russian aggression in the longer term, he said.

But without some form of Western security guarantee, developing the Polokhivske lithium deposit would be tough, he said.

The deposit - one of the largest in Europe - is located just 240km north-west of the front line with Russia.

Before the war broke out, I had a lot of commercial negotiations with... investors who were interested in the project, Mr Alyoshin told Reuters.

But when the war started... a rational CEO would not go to a country where there is a war, they would go to Zimbabwe, Canada or Africa. There are many places to go where there is no war.

Despite repeated requests from Mr Zelensky, the Trump administration has offered Kyiv no security guarantee. That has raised