Will Trump Spark a Mineral 'Gold Rush' in Greenland?

“We do want American investments. We do want collaboration with the U.S. State Department, and we’ve been trying to advocate for that for some time,” she told VOA.

Greenland signed a deal with Trump during his first administration in 2019 to boost the mining industry.

“The U.S. funded our direct marketing towards investors all over the world, and this agreement has just come to its end. So we’ve been trying to … get engagement from the U.S. for some time now in order to renew this deal,” Nathanielsen said.

Challenges
Despite widespread recognition of Greenland’s mineral wealth, attracting investment in mining has been a long-term problem.

“For many years now, we have seen that there has been some hesitance in the investor environment to engage in high-risk, long-term projects. We only have one American-owned license at the moment. In comparison, we have 23 from Canada, 23 from the U.K. and about 10 from Denmark. So, it’s not an area where you see a lot of U.S. engagement as of now. Of course we welcome it, and there’s plenty of opportunity,” Nathanielsen said.

Greenland’s government is pushing for full independence from Denmark. Supporters hope the island’s mineral wealth could one day provide the economic foundation for full statehood. But there’s a long way to go, said Ulrik Pram Gad, an analyst at the Danish Institute for International Studies in Copenhagen.

“If you want minerals out of the ground and financing Greenlandic self-sufficiency economically, then you will need to have the uptake in the international processing going,” Gad told VOA.

“And then, probably you’ll have to think very closely about how to make sure that these mining projects benefit people who live close to them, rather than being a new version of imperialist extraction. Because then, the Greenlanders might not want it in the end,” he explained.

The risk doesn’t always end in reward. Rubies and pink sapphires were extracted at the Aappaluttoq mine until 2023, when its operator, Greenland Ruby, went bankrupt, $71 million in debt. The company is restructuring and seeking new investors, with a goal of restarting operations.

Greenland’s 2.1 million square kilometers of land is icebound for much of the year.

“Obviously, we are in the middle of the Arctic, so there are some logistical challenges,” Jensen of Lumina said. “Not all of Greenland is open all year round. However, that is something that we can plan our way out of.”

Jensen added that investors must have patience to make a profit.

“It takes time to develop a project from the early-stage exploration until you actually have a mine where you can extract and start selling. And as we all say in mining, ‘Time is money.’”

Henry Ridgwell reports for VOA from London. This article is published courtesy of the Voice of America (VOA).