US President Donald Trump wants rare earth metals from Ukraine in exchange for aid, correspondent Stuart Smith reports.
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00:00What kind of metal is Donald Trump referring to?
00:04How valuable are they?
00:06And what is he expecting to actually use them for?
00:09Well, he explicitly talked about rare earth metals,
00:12which are a set of metals that aren't actually that rare,
00:15but they are found only in certain geographical locations.
00:18And what makes them special, especially now and looking ahead into the future,
00:22is they have some very unique electrochemical properties
00:25and magnetic properties that mean they're going to be really important
00:28for things like electric vehicles and motors,
00:31and also for renewable energy technology.
00:34They're also important in things like cancer drug treatment.
00:38Scandium, one of those, that's important there.
00:41And so while maybe one you've heard of, tungsten,
00:43others, many of them, you may not have.
00:46The reason Donald Trump might be interested in them is because
00:49China currently controls 70% of the world's supply of rare earth metals,
00:53and Ukraine has some too, but at the moment it can't get to them.
00:57So if Ukraine can get Donald Trump interested
01:00in potentially a deal based on providing rare earth metals,
01:04it may mean the U.S. is willing to provide more arms to Ukraine
01:07in order that it can get its territory back under control
01:10and then potentially sell those metals to the United States.