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In this aerial view, melting icebergs crowd the Ilulissat Icefjord near Ilulissat, Greenland, on July 16, 2024.
Sean Gallup | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Greenland’s massive ice loss is exposing the island’s natural resources, inadvertently leaving some of the world’s largest islands untapped critical mineral reserves More accessible.
Greenland is a vast but sparsely populated island located between the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans that has been climate crisis in recent decades.
Major analysis of historical satellite imagery, publish Last year, researchers at the University of Leeds in the UK found that the Danish autonomous territory was becoming increasingly greener due to the following reasons: man-made global warming.
Environmental changes caused parts of Greenland’s ice sheets and glaciers to be replaced by wetlands, scrub and barren rock.
Scientists have repeatedly Sounded the alarm Ice and snow on the island melt, warning of increasing risk of ice loss greenhouse gas emissions and sea level rise.
For mining companies, Greenland’s retreating ice could prompt the start of a mineral “gold rush.”
View of the Drygalski Peninsula and icebergs in the Uummannak fjord system in northwestern Greenland, north of the Polar Circle.
Radar | Global Imaging Group | Getty Images
“It’s interesting what’s happening now because the waters around Greenland are opening earlier and earlier and closing later and later each year. And the ability to access these remote areas is much greater than it was 20, 30, 40 or 70 years ago,” Roderick McIllree, executive director of British mining company 80 Mile, told CNBC via video call.
He added: “Now, in the far northern latitudes, the ice may only really form for three or four months, while the ice sheet in other parts of the country is receding, exposing rocks and potential mineral deposits that have never been seen before.”
80 Mile is currently actively developing three projects in Greenland, including a large oil concession on the island’s east coast, a titanium project near the U.S. Pitoufik Space Base in the northwest, and the Disko-Nuussuaq project in the southwest.
Highlighting the island’s strategic potential as a globally important mining centre, McIllree said the company’s Disko project could be one of the largest sources of nickel and copper on the planet.
geopolitical storm
Tony Sage, chief executive of Carey Metals, which is developing one of the world’s largest rare earth assets in Greenland, said melting ice on the island poses “huge consequences” for the mining company from a logistical perspective. benefit”.
Sage said the company was able to bring in large ships directly from the North Atlantic “all the way to the edge of the ore body at Tanbreez in southern Greenland”, adding that the formation of the 80-metre-deep fjord meant the team was able to use floating docks rather than ports .
On June 30, 2022, a ship carrying tourists sailed among floating icebergs in Disko Bay, Ilulissat, western Greenland.
Oded Andersen | AFP | Getty Images
“As you can imagine, it’s easier to do these things now. If you go into Russia, for example in Siberia, there’s a lot of permafrost and ice, but they still manage to extract a lot of minerals and oil and gas. So, yes, Greenland There’s going to be a mini gold rush,” Sage told CNBC via video call.
In addition to Greenland’s harsh climate, remote landscape and sparse population, Sage highlighted a lack of infrastructure as an obstacle for mining companies to overcome.
“It’s just a matter of logistics. The Danes never built railways, they never built any roads,” Sage said.
“Once you get out of these small towns and cities, there are no roads. So, if you want to get from Qaqortok, where we are, to Nuuk, you have to take a helicopter. So, that’s what happens with the gold rush problem,” he added.
Greenland has long positioned itself as a Western alternative to China near monopoly Regarding rare earth elements, it has been pushed into At the center of a geopolitical storm in recent weeks.
US President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed a desire to take control of the territory, describing the prospect as “absolutely necessary“For purposes related to national security.
Speaking at a press conference earlier this month, Trump refused to rule out using military force to make Greenland part of the United States.
Greenland Prime Minister Mutt Egged explain On Monday, the island opened up to closer ties with the United States, particularly in areas such as mining. Egged previously insisted that Greenland is “Not for sale” and called on the international community to respect the island’s aspirations for independence.
early stage
Jakob Kløve Keiding, senior advisor at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), said in 2023 opinion poll The Greenland Resource Potential Assessment assessed a total of 38 raw materials on the island, the vast majority of which have high or medium potential.
These materials include the rare earth metals graphite, niobium, platinum group metals, molybdenum, tantalum and titanium. Greenland also has significant deposits of lithium, hafnium, uranium and gold.
Critical minerals refer to a subset of materials considered critical to the energy transition. The end uses of these materials often carry a high risk of supply chain disruption, but are used in a wide range of applications including electric car Batteries, energy storage technologies and national security applications.
On September 4, 2024, a woman looked out from the cruise ship as it sailed away from the glacier between Maniitsok and Sisimiut on the west coast of Greenland.
James Brooks | AFP | Getty Images
“(Greenland) has huge potential, but there’s not really a lot of mining going on right now,” Kaeding told CNBC by phone.
“Greenland is what we call a greenfield exploration area. So in the early stages of exploration, for many deposits, we don’t have that much data. But there are some large and well-established deposits with known resources.”
Asked about the prospect of a mining gold rush, Kaeding sounded a warning, saying that while retreating Greenland ice might remove some logistical hurdles, progress on mining could take “quite a while.”
