Ukraine's Prime Minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, announced that the country will auction three titanium ore deposits after stripping businessman Dmytro Firtash of extraction rights. The licenses were taken from the Malyshevske field in Dnipropetrovsk and the Valky-Hatskivske and ​Mezhyrichne sites in Zhytomyr. The next step is to allow for business initiatives to obtain the right to use these subsoil resources through open auctions. Additionally, the state geological service is reviewing 38 permits for strategic mineral resource exploration suspected of being "scenes" - where holders do nothing with the permits.