For months, the world has puzzled concerning the acknowledged aim of the president of the United States to amass Greenland. Is he merely expressing a need to make America larger once more when it comes to territorial space? Is it a query of safety coverage? Or are essential minerals—and particularly Greenland’s immense uncommon earth riches—a key issue?
The primary two questions can’t actually be answered with no fuller understanding of the administration’s motives and techniques than is at the moment out there publicly. However for that third query, there exists a wealth of knowledge and context, each historic and modern-day.
Let’s begin with the trendy day. U.S. industries, like these of any developed economic system, rely upon essential supplies. Numerous consideration now’s targeted on the rare earths, a bunch of components of bizarre significance due to their indispensability in important industrial, protection, and industrial functions. Roughly 90 % of processed uncommon earths come from China, creating supply-chain vulnerabilities that many international locations are actually attempting to keep away from, notably since China announced restrictions on the export of heavy uncommon earths in April 2025. Systematic studies have indicated that Greenland has 10 important deposits of uncommon earth components.
However in mining, it’s the small print that matter. To know the worth of a minerals deposit it’s essential to consider the history and to make a actuality examine of documented sources. The information and the plain conclusions don’t all the time attain decision-makers, traders, and the media.
Greenland Is the World’s Greatest Island, However It’s Not as Large as You Assume
Greenland is the biggest island on the planet, however individuals usually get an exaggerated impression of how massive it’s as a result of the generally used Mercator projection distorts the scale of landmasses near the poles. Greenland is about 2 million sq. kilometers. Nonetheless, the ice-free half—which may rather more feasibly be mined than the opposite half—is roughly the scale of California, and with none scenic coastal highways. Touring between settlements is feasible solely by boat or airplane.
Greenland has had 9 totally different mines since World Battle II, however just one, for the mineral anorthosite, is energetic in the present day. One other one, for gold, is anticipated to achieve full manufacturing later this yr.
Greenland’s solely absolutely operational mine as of Might 2025 extracts anorthosite rock at a website referred to as White Mountain, on the central west coast of the island.Flemming Getreuer Christiansen
Greenland took over the dealing with of all mining licenses from Denmark in 1998 and full authority in 2010 after self-governance was launched. Greenland has developed a contemporary licensing system for mining with a component of competitors between corporations and clear procedures for public enter on environmental and socioeconomic considerations. The variety of licenses granted by the federal government has been excessive and comparatively fixed for a few years, however the degree of precise actions, corresponding to drilling, has been low over the previous decade. A number of licenses have been relinquished or revoked with none mining ever happening.
The explanations are many. A serious one is lack of human sources. The inhabitants of Greenland is simply 57,000, scattered round an space thrice the scale of Texas. One more reason is excessive operational prices as a result of harsh local weather and lack of infrastructure. Others embrace restrictions favoring labor from Greenland or Denmark. Nonetheless others embrace puzzling latest bureaucratic adjustments within the authorized framework of mining associated to the necessities for useful resource assessments and feasibility research, and likewise environmental and socioeconomic necessities for acquiring an exploitation license. Complicated royalty schemes and comparatively excessive company taxes contribute to uncertainty and dangers that many traders have been unwilling to take. That is at a time when Greenland sorely wants investments to gas its desires of financial and political independence from Denmark.
In the summertime of 2021, the Greenland authorities mentioned no to issuing additional petroleum licenses. It didn’t matter very a lot as a result of by then, all the biggest oil and gas corporations had already left Greenland on account of declining oil costs and rising prices attributable to the adjustments to laws. Because the Seventies, some 40 corporations have been concerned, however they drilled solely 15 exploration wells and made no industrial discoveries.
The Ivittuut mine, seen right here in 1953, extracted big quantities of cryolite throughout World Battle II. Ivittuut was one of many few locations on the planet recognized to have deposits of cryolite, which was vital for the smelting of aluminum. The mine closed in 1987.Kaj Skall Sørensen/Danish Arctic Institute
Nonetheless, there have been some industrial actions. Throughout World Battle II, the Ivittuut mine in South Greenland produced cryolite for aluminum manufacturing and was essential for the U.S. battle effort. Since that point, U.S. corporations have proven solely a modest curiosity in Greenland; of the whole of 250 corporations which have been granted exploration licenses over the previous a number of a long time, 10 have been American. Of fifty corporations from numerous international locations which have been drilling in Greenland, 4 have been from the USA, and of the 15 corporations which have utilized for an exploitation license, exactly zero have been American. So traditionally the U.S. fingerprint on mineral exploration in Greenland is negligible, despite the fact that the door has been open for many years.
The Deposits Are Large however Have Low Concentrations of Uncommon Earth Parts
According to the European Union, Greenland has nice untapped potential for 25 of the 34 minerals recognized within the Union’s official record of uncooked supplies, together with uncommon earth components, graphite, platinum group metals, and niobium. Taking a look at these in additional element, nonetheless, a extra advanced image emerges. In 2023, an investigationfor the Center for Mineral Resources and Materials of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland discovered that Greenland’s mineral sources included all the pieces from minor occurrences to substantial deposits scattered across the island.
Of Greenland’s 10 essential rare earth deposits, solely two, Kvanefjeld (Kuannersuit) and Kringlerne (Killavaat Alannguat), have attracted a lot consideration.
Despite being situated just some miles aside in the identical advanced in South Greenland, these two uncommon earth deposits are very totally different for all parameters: geology and mineralogy, stage of exploration, and documented sources. They’re alike, nonetheless, in that each deposits have some severe drawbacks compared with energetic mines or superior initiatives elsewhere within the West.
The Kvanefjeld plateau, close to the southern tip of Greenland, is the positioning of huge deposits of uncommon earth oxides, uranium, thorium, and different components of business significance.Jan Richard Heinicke/laif/Redux
Kvanefjeld is the one mission in Greenland with well-documented reserves, nevertheless it suffers from–or, some would say, may doubtlessly profit from–a excessive content material of uranium and thorium.
In 2021, when the mission was within the closing section of getting an exploitation license, the Greenlandic authorities dug in its heels and made it unlawful to mine deposits with greater than 100 elements per million of uranium. The brand new laws have been used in opposition to the Australian firm behind the Kvanefjeld mission, rendering nugatory years of heavy investments; greater than US $100 million was reportedly spent on drilling and different work.
The corporate filed a request for arbitration in 2022, and in 2024 it commenced authorized proceedings in opposition to the Greenland and Danish governments. It might be years earlier than these circumstances are resolved. Within the meantime, this case is prone to hurt funding in Greenland as a result of local weather of excessive political danger it suggests.
The uncommon earths on the Kringlerne deposit are contained inside an igneous rock referred to as kakortokite.Jan Richard Heinicke/laif/Redux
At Kringlerne there are a lot decrease concentrations of uranium. The privately owned firm that has invested within the website, Tanbreez, claims that it’s the largest deposit of its form on the planet, however that perception is predicated on little or no drilling. In 2020, the corporate received an exploration license despite not having supplied documentation of sources, up to date research of feasibility, or of environmental and socioeconomic influence. Deadlines for offering monetary safety and plans for mining and closure have been prolonged for a few years. Tanbreez was partly taken over by a New York–based company registered on the NASDAQ, and the brand new house owners have been obligated to comply with worldwide requirements and disclose a confidential useful resource estimate from 2016. The report revealed significantly extra disappointing numbers with regard to ore grade and different traits.
Nor do Greenland’s deposits fare effectively as compared with different mines or deposits. Typical ore grades at profitable mines or engaging deposits are between 4 and eight % uncommon earths. The ore on the mines at Mount Weld in Australia and Mountain Pass in California, and the deposits at Nolans Bore in Australia and Bear Lodge in Wyoming, all fall inside that vary. In Kvanefjeld the quantity is 1.4 %, and in Kringlerne, it dips as little as 0.38 %. The Greenlandic mines would consequently require bigger open pits and rather more vitality for crushing, separation, and refining, which might inevitably drive up prices for establishing mines and for truly working them.
Nonetheless, the latest U.S. curiosity in Greenland led to some shocking reactions on the inventory market, mixed with excessive volatility. The share worth of Kvanefjeld tripled after intense buying and selling at first of 2025. The share worth of Kringlerne has dropped considerably because the new house owners have been listed on the NASDAQ, however with many ups and downs following all types of inventory bulletins that referenced miscellaneous analyses of previous cores.
Greenland’s Flirtations With China Might Backfire
After the Trump administration touched off a tariff battle, the geopolitical skirmishing between the USA and China over uncommon earths turned a way more difficult conflagration involving the USA, the European Union, and China.
And the Greenland authorities has continued to fan the flames by courting Chinese language funding. In March, for instance, Greenland’s international minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, reportedly identified closer cooperation with China as a precedence, and even touted the opportunity of a free commerce settlement between Greenland and China. In accordance with a report in The Diplomat, Motzfeldt’s actions have been ”largely pushed by the idea…that a mining boom, fueled by Chinese language funding, was probably the most practical path towards independence from Denmark—a aim shared by most Greenlandic events.” Possibly so, however such strikes have been broadly perceived as a provocation in opposition to Denmark and the USA. No matter their motivation, they might very effectively result in elevated U.S. stress. For the USA it will be a geostrategic nightmare if China opened a mine in a distant a part of Greenland, with a city, communication traces, harbor, and an airfield that would clearly be used for functions apart from useful resource extraction and export.
Since Greenland took management of its mineral sources, Denmark has been reluctant to get entangled in mining initiatives. That would very effectively change. Denmark and the E.U. might come underneath stress to put money into much-needed infrastructure and vitality initiatives and provide loans on extra favorable circumstances, if for no different purpose than to maintain the USA at bay.
Although the scenario is extremely unstable, it’s essential to strive, at the least, to separate the geopolitical posturing from the realities of mining. In that vein, it’s protected to say there can be no working uncommon earth mines in Greenland through the time period of Donald J. Trump.
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