Nonetheless, wherever there’s mining exercise, there’s potential for spills. There’s additionally potential for lots of noise: Ships particularly fill the ocean round Greenland with a din that may stress and disorient fishes and marine mammals, like narwhals, seals, and whales. For vocalizing species, it may possibly disrupt their communication.
There’s loads at stake right here economically and politically, too: Fishing is Greenland’s predominant business, accounting for 95 % of the island’s exports. Uncommon earth mining, then, is the island’s play to diversify its financial system, which might assist it wean off the subsidies it will get from the Danish authorities. That, in flip, might assist it win independence.
Up to now, the mining enterprise has been a bit rocky in Greenland. In 2021, the federal government banned uranium mining, halting the event of a challenge by the Australian outfit Greenland Minerals, which might have additionally produced uncommon earths on the website. (Greenland Minerals didn’t reply to a number of requests to remark for this story.) The China-linked firm is now suing the Greenland authorities for $11 billion—probably spooking different would-be prospectors and the buyers already fearful in regards to the profitability of mining for uncommon earths within the far north.
“After we discuss to them, they perceive the state of affairs, and so they’re not afraid,” stated Hammeken-Holm. He added that Greenland maintains a dialogue with mining outfits in regards to the challenges, and prospects, of exploration. “It’s troublesome to get personal finance for these tasks, however we aren’t alone,” he stated. “That is a worldwide state of affairs.”
The rising demand and geopolitical fervor round uncommon earths might effectively make Greenland irresistible for mining corporations, whatever the logistical challenges. Hammeken-Holm says {that a} main discovery, like an particularly wealthy deposit of a given uncommon earth component, is likely to be the additional enhance the nation wants to remodel itself into an indispensable supplier of the vital minerals.
Each Exner-Pirot, of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and Lajeunesse, the general public coverage professional, say that Western powers may get to the purpose the place they intervene aggressively available in the market. Like China’s state-sponsored uncommon earths business, the US, Canada, Australia, or the European Union—which entered right into a strategic partnership with Greenland in 2023 to develop vital uncooked supplies—may band collectively to ensure a gradual move of the minerals that make fashionable militaries, consumerism, and the power transition doable. Subsidies, as an illustration, would assist make the business extra worthwhile—and palatable for buyers. “You’d have to just accept that you simply’re buying and creating minerals for greater than the market worth,” Lajeunesse stated. “However over the long run, it is about creating a safety of provide.”
Already a land of fast climatological change, Greenland might quickly develop richer—and extra highly effective on the world stage. Ton by ton, its disappearing ice will reveal extra of the mineral options to the world’s woes.
Tom Vaillant contributed analysis and reporting. This story is a part of the Grist collection Unearthed: The Mining Concern, which examines the worldwide race to extract vital minerals for the clear power transition.