Why getting Greenland’s mineral riches won’t be easy
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Beneath its desolate, icy expanse, Greenland holds some of the world’s biggest untapped reserves of the raw minerals used to make everything from smartphones and electric cars to F-35 Lightning II jet fighters. Good luck getting them out of the ground.
President-elect Donald Trump has said the U.S. needs Greenland for national security. Part of the island’s allure are its rare earths, metals and other raw materials.
America now mostly relies on China for its supplies of some key materials, and Beijing could wield its access to them as a weapon in a trade war. But Greenland’s harsh climate, hazardous shipping, limited infrastructure and tiny local workforce have for years left a promised gold rush frozen in its tracks. Increasing geopolitical competition, rising need for rare elements and a warming climate are now fueling hopes for the development of a mining industry on Greenland.
Any significant extraction, though, is still years away, experts and industry participants say. “Greenland is starting to become much more attractive to those who are hoping to potentially break the very strong influence of China in rare earth exports, and climate change helps with some of the issues," said Marc Lanteigne, professor at the University of Tromsø and an adjunct lecturer at the University of Greenland. “What does not change, though, is the overall conditions, including a lack of infrastructure and labor, that make mining considerably challenging and considerably expensive," he said.
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