Journalistic probe suggests corruption in licensing development of huge lithium ore deposits amid electric cars boom

The permit for extraction of some 14 million tonnes of lithium ore was granted without a due tender procedure, journalists claim.

Special permit for the development of the Shevchenko deposit (in the government-controlled part of Donetsk region) was issued without competition to Petro-Consulting, a company Ukrainian journalists say close to Energy Minister Ihor Nasalyk, MP Ihor Kononenko and Ihor Hladkovsky, son of the first deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, according to Bihus.info.

While the SBU security service classified data on lithium ore deposits in Ukraine, the company reported on the reserves of the field it would be operating at 14 million tonnes.

With a 1% share of lithium in the ore, the cost of the deposit is estimated at over $2.5 billion.

Nominal owners of Petro-Consulting are two Ukrainian nationals – a Lviv-based restaurateur Oleh Bolshakov and a Kyiv sculptor Mykola Yesypenko.

Read alsoUkraine may become "European China" in production of electric cars – Eurocar ownerThe company's official phone, listed in the register of the Ministry of Justice, is also registered with Magic Estate company, whose founder is Taras Ihnaschenko, a young low-profile businessman and son of Volodymyr Ihnashchenko, an advisor to the Minister of Energy, Ihor Nasalyk.

Ihnashchenko is also an aide to MP Anatoly Matvienko from the BPP faction and neighbor of another People's Deputy, Ihor Kononenko, who is a business partner of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

Younger Ihnashchenko is doing business with Ihor Hladkovsky, son of the First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Poroshenko's former business partner in Bohdan motor vehicle manufacturer.

Ihor Hladkovsky and Taras Ihnashchenko are co-founders of LLC Kyivbioenergo.

Back in 2017, while heading Hyundai Motor Ukraine, Hladkovsky described the prospects of electric cars in Ukraine.

Today, his business partner received a permit to extract 14 million tonnes of lithium ore bypassing competition and an auction procedure. Lithium is used to make batteries for such type of cars, bypassing the tender and auction.