For months, the world has puzzled in regards to the said objective of the President of the United States to amass Greenland. Is he merely expressing a want to make America larger once more when it comes to territorial space? Is it a query of safety coverage? Or are important minerals—and particularly Greenland’s immense rare-earth riches—a key issue?
The primary two questions can’t actually be answered and not using a fuller understanding of the administration’s motives and methods than is at present accessible publicly. However for that third query, there exists a wealth of knowledge and context, each historic and modern-day.
Let’s begin with the fashionable day. U.S. industries, like these of any developed economic system, rely on important supplies. A number of consideration now’s targeted on the rare earths, a gaggle of components of bizarre significance due to their indispensability in important industrial, protection, and industrial purposes. Roughly 90 % of processed uncommon earths come from China, creating supply-chain vulnerabilities that many nations at the moment are 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 main points that matter. To know the worth of a minerals deposit it’s necessary to consider the history and to make a actuality verify of documented sources. The info and the apparent conclusions don’t at all times attain determination makers, buyers, and the media.
Greenland is the World’s Largest Island, However It’s Not As Large As You Assume
Greenland is the biggest island on the planet, however folks usually get an exaggerated impression of how massive it is because of the truth that the generally used Mercator projection distorts the dimensions of landmasses near the poles. Greenland is about two million sq. kilometers. Nonetheless, the ice-free half—which may rather more feasibly be mined than the opposite half—is roughly the dimensions of California, and with none scenic coastal highways. Touring between settlements is barely doable by boat or airplane.
Greenland has had 9 totally different mines since World Battle II however just one, for the mineral anorthosite, is lively at the moment. One other one, for gold, is anticipated to succeed in full manufacturing later this yr.
Greenland’s solely totally operational mine as of Might 2025 extracts anorthosite rock at a web site known 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 Authorities has been excessive and comparatively fixed for a few years, however the stage of precise actions, akin 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 significant one is lack of human sources. The inhabitants of Greenland is barely 57,000, scattered round an space 3 times the dimensions of Texas. Another excuse 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 current bureaucratic adjustments within the authorized framework of mining associated to the necessities for useful resource assessments, feasibility research and likewise environmental and socio-economic necessities for acquiring an exploitation license. Advanced royalty schemes and comparatively excessive company taxes contribute to uncertainty and dangers that many buyers have been unwilling to take. That is at a time when Greenland sorely wants investments to gasoline its goals of financial and political independence from Denmark.
In the summertime of 2021, the Greenland authorities stated no to issuing additional petroleum licenses. It didn’t matter very a lot as a result of by then, the entire largest oil and gas corporations had already left Greenland because of declining oil costs and rising prices brought on by the modified laws. Because the Nineteen Seventies, some 40 corporations have been concerned, however they solely drilled 15 exploration wells and made no industrial discoveries.
The Ivittuut mine, seen right here in 1953, extracted enormous 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 crucial 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. struggle effort. Since that point, US 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 many years, 10 have been American. Of fifty corporations from varied nations which have been drilling in Greenland, 4 have been from the US, and of the 15 corporations which have utilized for an exploitation license, exactly zero have been American. So traditionally the US fingerprint on mineral exploration in Greenland is negligible though the door has been open for many years.
The Deposits are Large however Have Low Concentrations of Uncommon-Earth Parts
According to the EU, 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. Trying intimately, nevertheless, a extra complicated image emerges. In 2023, an investigationfor the Center for Minerals and Materials of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland discovered that Greenland’s mineral sources included all the things from minor occurrences to substantial deposits scattered across the island.
Of Greenland’s 10 necessary rare earth deposits, solely two, Kvanefjeld (Kuannersuit) and Kringlerne (Killavaat Alannguat), have attracted a lot consideration.
Regardless of being situated just some miles aside in the identical complicated in South Greenland, these two rare-earth deposits are very totally different on all parameters: geology and mineralogy, stage of exploration, and documented sources. They’re alike, nevertheless, in that each deposits have some severe drawbacks when in comparison with lively mines or superior tasks elsewhere within the West.
The Kvanefjeld plateau, close to the southern tip of Greenland, is the location of enormous deposits of rare-earth oxides, uranium, thorium, and different components of commercial significance.Jan Richard Heinicke/laif/Redux
Kvanefjeld is the one mission in Greenland with nicely documented reserves; but it surely 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 part of getting an exploitation license, the Greenlandic authorities dug in its heels and made it unlawful to mine deposits with greater than 100 components per million of uranium. The brand new laws have been used towards 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 towards the Greenland and Danish governments. It might be years earlier than these instances 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 known 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 web site, 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 obtained an exploration license regardless of not having supplied documentation of sources, up to date research of feasibility, or of environmental and socio-economic 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 almost about ore grade and different traits.
Nor do Greenland’s deposits fare nicely in comparisons with different mines or deposits. Typical ore grades at profitable mines or enticing 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 current US curiosity in Greenland led to some stunning reactions on the inventory market, mixed with excessive volatility. The share value of Kvanefjeld tripled after intense buying and selling initially of 2025. The share value of Kringlerne has dropped considerably because the new house owners have been listed on the NASDAQ, however with many ups and downs following all kinds of inventory bulletins that referenced miscellaneous analyses of outdated cores.
Greenland’s Flirtations with China May Backfire
After the Trump administration touched off a tariff struggle, the geopolitical skirmishing between the U.S. and China over uncommon earths grew to become a way more difficult conflagration involving the U.S., the E.U., and China.
And the Greenland authorities has continued to fan the flames by courting Chinese language funding. In March, for instance, Greenland’s overseas minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, reportedly identified closer cooperation with China as a precedence, and even touted the potential for a free commerce settlement between Greenland and China. In keeping 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 essentially the most reasonable path towards independence from Denmark – a objective shared by most Greenlandic events.” Possibly so, however such strikes have been broadly perceived as a provocation towards Denmark and the U.S. No matter their motivation, they may very nicely result in elevated US strain. For the USA it might be a geostrategic nightmare if China opened a mine in a distant a part of Greenland, with a city, communication strains, harbor, and an airfield that might 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 tasks. That might very nicely change. Denmark and the E.U. might come underneath strain to put money into much-needed infrastructure and vitality tasks and provide loans on extra favorable circumstances, if for no different cause than to maintain the USA at bay.
Although the state of affairs is very unstable, it’s necessary to attempt, at the very least, to separate the geopolitical posturing from the realities of mining. In that vein, it’s protected to say there might be no working uncommon earth mines in Greenland throughout the time period of Donald J. Trump.
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