The US is romancing Russia in its supposed rare earth resource deal with Ukraine. That's because, the US, Canada and Australia already have proven reserves waiting to go ahead (and which don't need discovering), while it is Russia that needs mining technology and capital from the US:
https://investornews.com/critical-minerals-rare-earths/ukraine-minerals-deal/
It is economically counterproductive in the extreme to propose wasting American public capital on Ukrainian mineral riches’ discovery and development when American, Canadian, and Australian deposits simply await government approval to go ahead.
The sole area of advantage to the U.S. that the Ukrainian mineral story supports is a political one, and the target isn’t Ukraine. It’s Russia, which has a bad case of the resource curse. Its economy is dependent on oil produced in fields developed by guess-which-country, but has vast known mineral wealth undeveloped due to Russia’s long history of not allowing the free market to operate, and so discouraging private development.
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