In this aerial view, melting icebergs accumulate on the Ilulissat Icefjord near Ilulissat, Greenland, on July 16, 2024.
Shawn Gallup | Getty Images News | getty images
Mass ice loss from Greenland is exposing the island’s natural resources, inadvertently leaving some of the world’s largest untapped important mineral reserves more accessible.
Greenland, a vast but sparsely populated island located between the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans, has been transformed by? climate crisis in recent decades.
A major analysis of historical satellite images, published Last year, researchers at the University of Leeds in the UK showed that the autonomous Danish region is becoming increasingly green human-caused global warming,
The changing environment has led to parts of the Greenland ice sheet and glaciers being replaced by areas of wetlands, scrub and barren rock.
Scientists have repeatedly said rang the alarm Melting of ice on the island increases the risk of mass ice destruction greenhouse gas emissions And rising sea levels,
For mining companies, Greenland’s ice retreat could facilitate the start of a mineral “gold rush”.
Landscape on the Drygalsky Peninsula, north of the polar circle, with icebergs in the Uummannaq Fjord system in northwest Greenland.
reda Universal Images Group | getty images
What’s happening now is interesting because the waters around Greenland are opening earlier and earlier every year and closing later and later every year. And the ability to go to these remote places is expanding by 20, 30 years.” Much easier than 40 or 70 years ago,” Roderick McLeary, executive director of Britain-based mining company 80 Mile, told CNBC via video call.
He said, “Now, ice probably only forms for three or four months in northern latitudes and ice sheets in the rest of the country are receding which is exposing rocks and potential mineral deposits that have not been seen before. “
80 Mile currently has three projects actively developing in Greenland, including a large oil concession on the east coast of the island, a titanium project near the US Pitfall Space Base in the northwest, and its disco in the southwest. -Nususak project is included.
Underscoring the island’s strategic potential as a globally important mining hub, McCleary said the firm’s Disco project could be one of the largest nickel and copper developments on the planet.
a geopolitical storm
Tony Sage, CEO of Critical Metals Corporation, which is developing one of the world’s largest rare earth properties in Greenland, said melting ice on the island has brought “huge benefits” to the mining company from a logistics perspective.
Sage said the company was able to bring large vessels from the North Atlantic straight to Tanbreeze in southern Greenland “to the edge of our ore deposits”, adding that the construction of the 80-metre-deep fjord meant the team was able to bring large vessels “right to the edge of our ore deposits. Use a floating dock instead of a port.
A boat carrying tourists amid floating icebergs in Disko Bay, Ilulissat, western Greenland, on June 30, 2022.
Weird Anderson | AFP | getty images
“You can imagine, now these things have become easier to do. If you go to Russia, for example, to Siberia, it’s under a lot of permafrost and ice and they still have a lot of minerals, as well as oil. And if we manage to mine the gas then, yes, there will be a mini gold rush in Greenland,” Sage told CNBC via video call.
As well as Greenland’s harsh climate, remote landscape and small population, SAGE highlighted the lack of infrastructure as a barrier for mining companies.
“It’s just logistics. The Danes never built a railway (and) 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 go between, for example, Qaqortoq, where we are, to Nuuk, you have to get a helicopter. So, that’s the problem you’ll face with the gold rush,” he added.
Greenland, which has long presented itself as a Western alternative to China near monopoly Emphasis is on rare earth elements center of a geopolitical storm In recent weeks.
US President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to gain control over the region, and has described the possibility as “absolute necessity”For purposes related to national security.
Speaking at a press conference earlier in the month, Trump ruled out the possibility of using military force to make Greenland part of the US.
Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede Said On Monday the island is open to closer ties with the US, especially in areas such as mining. Egede had previously stressed that Greenland “not for sale”And called on the international community to respect the island’s independence aspirations.
early stages
Jacob Klov Keiding, senior advisor at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), said in 2023 survey A total of 38 raw materials were evaluated on the island based on Greenland’s resource potential, most of which have relatively high or medium potential.
These materials include the rare earth metals graphite, niobium, platinum group metals, molybdenum, tantalum, and titanium. Greenland is also known to have significant lithium, hafnium, uranium and gold reserves.
Critical minerals refer to a subgroup of materials considered essential to the energy transition. The end use of these materials, which carries a high risk of supply chain disruption, is wide-ranging and includes electric vehicle Batteries, energy storage technologies, and national security applications.
A woman looks out from a tour boat as it sails away from a glacier between Maniitsoq and Sisimiut off the west coast of Greenland on September 4, 2024.
James Brooks AFP | getty images
“There’s huge potential (in Greenland), but right now, there’s not really a lot of mining going on,” Keeding told CNBC via telephone.
“Greenland is what we would call a greenfield exploration area. So, (it’s) in the early stages of exploration, where, for many deposits, we don’t have as much data. But some are large and well-established with known resources. Deposit.”
Keeding issued a note of caution when asked about the possibility of a mineral gold rush, saying that Greenland’s retreating ice could overcome some logistical hurdles, but that progress in terms of extraction would be “considerable.” It is likely to take time.
