To listen to some U.S. officers inform it, Greenland is a treasure trove of essential minerals ripe for the taking.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, for instance, has hailed how “Greenland sits atop huge reserves of rare-earth components,” whereas U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance has pointed to the territory’s “unbelievable pure sources.”
To listen to some U.S. officers inform it, Greenland is a treasure trove of essential minerals ripe for the taking.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, for instance, has hailed how “Greenland sits atop huge reserves of rare-earth components,” whereas U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance has pointed to the territory’s “unbelievable pure sources.”
“It’s our nationwide safety. It’s important minerals,” then-incoming U.S. Nationwide Safety Advisor Mike Waltz declared when discussing President Donald Trump’s designs on the island final 12 months.
As Greenland has but once more entered the worldwide highlight amid Trump’s annexation threats, so too has the island’s mining potential for uncommon earths, the uncooked supplies which have emerged as a significant flash level within the U.S.-China commerce conflict.
Whereas China leverages its rare-earth would possibly in commerce talks, Washington has been scrambling to safe new provide chains exterior of Beijing’s grip—together with by eyeing Greenland. Final 12 months, the Trump administration reportedly mulled taking a stake in a agency that may give the USA a direct curiosity in a rare-earth mission on the island, per Reuters.
However Greenland is probably not the rare-earth mom lode that some U.S. officers assume.
“It actually doesn’t make any sense as a rare-earth story,” stated Ian Lange, a professor within the mineral economics program on the Colorado Faculty of Mines.
Uncommon earths are a set of 17 metallic components which might be essential to powering superior weapons techniques, inexperienced power applied sciences, and way more. Regardless of their identify, the sources themselves aren’t truly that arduous to seek out—as Trump himself has acknowledged.
What’s tougher is discovering the supplies in economically viable concentrations after which mining and processing them. That each one requires immense capital and experience and has environmental prices.
That is the place Greenland, which has by no means seen any rare-earth mining, raises doubts. “There’s an financial query that’s hanging over entry to the property in Greenland and exploiting them,” stated Chris Berry, the president of Home Mountain Companions, an impartial metals evaluation consultancy primarily based in Washington.
Greenland does seem to have about 1.5 million tons price of reserves of uncommon earths. In response to the U.S. Geological Survey, the island claims the world’s eighth-biggest rare-earth reserves, however that places it behind even the United States. Consideration on the island’s uncommon earths has largely centered on two deposits, Kvanefjeld and Tanbreez.
However that’s only one a part of the image. Whereas Greenland has “excessive potential for uncommon earths,” stated Gracelin Baskaran, a important minerals safety professional on the Middle for Strategic and Worldwide Research (CSIS), “simply because you will have minerals doesn’t essentially make you a aggressive mining jurisdiction.”
That’s as a result of it’s not really easy to mine and even entry desired mineral deposits in a spot the place an estimated 80 p.c of the land is coated in ice. Past that impediment, the island lacks a lot of the mining and processing infrastructure that may be essential to get an business off the bottom.
“The infrastructure that you just’re going to wish to place in place, I might argue, goes to be very, very cost-prohibitive,” Berry stated.
With restricted roads connecting the territory’s main hubs, it could be much more difficult to launch development efforts. Native opposition and environmental considerations, too, would probably show to be a main roadblock to any mining efforts.
With all of those situations, Greenland is much from a great mining atmosphere, consultants stated.
“There’s so many rare-earth tasks that when you had been to rank them when it comes to doable all the way down to not doable, Greenland’s mission could be within the backside quartile,” stated Christopher Ecclestone, a mining strategist on the monetary advisory agency Hallgarten & Co.
Baskaran, the CSIS professional, stated Washington’s “finest guess” at making mining work in Greenland could be working with the European Union to spend money on the island.
However that, too, might show tough at a time when the White Home’s relationship with many European leaders has quickly devolved in latest days over Trump’s annexation threats and Greenlandic leaders have vigorously insisted that the island, which is semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, isn’t on the market.
Within the important minerals race, Washington is perhaps higher off if it focuses its consideration elsewhere.
“These sources aren’t uncommon—it’s an financial query,” Berry stated. “I simply assume you might most likely develop a rare-earth or a copper or a lithium provide chain way more affordably and way more shortly with out Greenland.”
