An plane alledgedly carrying US businessman Donald Trump Jr. arrives in Nuuk, Greenland on January 7, 2025.
Emil Stach | Afp | Getty Pictures
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump‘s pursuit to amass Greenland may properly be motivated by vital minerals, with mining executives and researchers describing the island’s large useful resource potential as an “monumental alternative.”
Trump’s years-long bid to take management of the world’s largest island has kicked into overdrive in latest weeks.
Forward of his inauguration on Jan. 20, Trump mentioned U.S. possession of the autonomous Danish territory is an “absolute necessity” for functions associated to “nationwide safety and freedom all through the world.”
Trump has since doubled down on these feedback, refusing to rule out using navy or financial pressure to make Greenland part of the U.S.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede has informed Trump that the Arctic island is “not for sale” and urged the worldwide neighborhood to respect the territory’s aspirations for independence. Alongside Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Egede has additionally not too long ago called for talks with Trump to resolve the state of affairs.
Requested about Trump’s fixation on making Greenland part of the U.S., the president-elect’s incoming nationwide safety advisor, Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., was unequivocal.
“That is about vital minerals. That is about pure assets,” Waltz informed Fox News in an interview on Jan. 9.
“That is about reintroducing America within the Western Hemisphere,” Waltz mentioned. “You possibly can name it Monroe Doctrine 2.0, however that is all a part of the ‘America First‘ agenda.”
Greenland goes to grow to be increasingly more topical; it’ll grow to be increasingly more entrance and heart due to the local weather change dialogue, the vital metals dialogue and the geopolitical dialogue.
Roderick McIllree
Government director of 80 Mile
Vital minerals discuss with a subset of supplies thought-about important to the energy transition. These minerals, which are likely to have a excessive threat of provide chain disruption, embrace metals resembling copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt and uncommon earth parts.
Vital minerals and uncommon earth parts are important elements in rising inexperienced applied sciences, resembling wind generators and electric vehicles, power storage applied sciences and nationwide safety purposes.
China is the undisputed leader of the vital minerals provide chain, accounting for roughly 60% of the world’s manufacturing of uncommon earth minerals and supplies. U.S. officers have beforehand warned that this poses a strategic problem amid the pivot to low-carbon power sources.
On this aerial view melting icebergs crowd the Ilulissat Icefjord on July 16, 2024 close to Ilulissat, Greenland.
Sean Gallup | Getty Pictures Information | Getty Pictures
Jakob Kløve Keiding, senior guide on the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), mentioned a 2023 survey of Greenland’s useful resource potential evaluated a complete of 38 uncooked supplies on the island, the overwhelming majority of which have a comparatively excessive or reasonable potential.
These supplies embrace the uncommon earth metals graphite, niobium, platinum group metals, molybdenum, tantalum and titanium.
“General, we will say that there’s a enormous potential for vital uncooked supplies [in Greenland],” Keiding informed CNBC by way of phone.
“Many of those are of nice significance for the EU financial system and, in fact, it isn’t restricted to simply Europe. Many of those are additionally on the listing of American [critical raw materials],” he added.
‘Greenland isn’t on the market’
Aaja Chemnitz, a Greenland member of the Danish parliament from the Inuit Ataqatigiit celebration, described Trump’s feedback about Greenland as “disrespectful” and reaffirmed the prime minister’s message by saying the territory isn’t on the market.
“I am not involved. I believe that some individuals in Greenland are fairly involved, however I believe it can be crucial for us to say that Greenland isn’t on the market, by no means has been on the market [and] by no means might be on the market,” Chemnitz informed CNBC’s Silvia Amaro on Monday.
Chemnitz mentioned Greenlandic lawmakers would want to have “clear and really particular targets on easy methods to collaborate with the U.S.”
Nearer ties between Greenland and the U.S. transferring ahead, as an example, may assist to facilitate funding within the island’s mining trade, she added.
“If we have a look at extraction, for instance, of uncommon earths. That is one thing that we now have been keen to do for a really very long time. We have been searching for American traders, [but] we’ve not discovered them, so they’re fairly welcome,” Chemnitz mentioned.
The U.S. navy maintains a everlasting presence in northwest Greenland on the Pituffik House Base, previously generally known as Thule Air Base.
‘A race for what’s left’
Roderick McIllree, govt director of U.Ok.-based mining firm 80 Mile, mentioned he is been working in Greenland for simply over 20 years on initiatives starting from useful resource discovery to feasibility.
“I believe that what we’re seeing in Greenland is known as a race for what’s left,” McIllree informed CNBC by way of video name.
“Loads of impartial state surveys are pointing to Greenland and its pure shelf boundaries as doubtlessly internet hosting 20% to 25% of the final remaining extractable assets on the planet. Now, if that is proper, that is an unlimited alternative for Greenland.”
The Previous Colonial Harbour of Nuuk, Greenland is pictured on August 30, 2024. Greenland, an icy land whose rugged landscapes are bewitching, needs to draw extra vacationers, a paradox for a territory that’s notably susceptible to international warming and whose geographical isolation implies that many individuals should take planes to get there.
James Brooks | Afp | Getty Pictures
80 Mile at the moment has three initiatives it’s actively growing in Greenland, together with a big oil concession on the island’s east coast, a titanium venture close to Pituffik within the northwest and its Disko-Nuussuaq venture within the southwest.
Underlining the useful resource potential within the territory, McIllree mentioned the agency’s Disko venture could possibly be one of many largest occurrences of nickel and copper on the planet.
“Greenland goes to grow to be increasingly more topical; it’ll grow to be increasingly more entrance and heart due to the climate change dialogue, the vital metals dialogue and the geopolitical dialogue. And its proximity to the U.S. actually type of makes it a pure jurisdiction for important U.S. funding,” McIllree mentioned.
“If Greenland play their playing cards proper, this may result in their independence,” he added.
‘Important strategic curiosity’
In March final 12 months, European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen traveled to Nuuk, Greenland to inaugurate an EU office within the island’s capital.
The transfer, which got here a number of months earlier than Donald Trump Jnr.’s latest journey to the identical metropolis, was designed to agency up Europe’s presence within the territory in addition to the broader Arctic region.
Von der Leyen introduced two cooperation agreements totaling nearly 94 million euros ($95.9 million) on the time, which she mentioned could be used to spend money on clear power, vital uncooked supplies and abilities in Greenland.
(L-R) President of the European Fee Ursula von der Leyen, Greenlandic Prime Minister Mute B Egede and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen signal an settlement on the opening of the European Fee’s new workplace in Nuuk, Greenland, on March 15, 2024.
Leiff Josefsen | Afp | Getty Pictures
“I am a geologist by background and I do know that Greenland could be very properly endowed with pure assets,” Paul Lusty, head of battery uncooked supplies analysis at Fastmarkets, informed CNBC by way of video name.
“There was numerous curiosity in uncommon earths in Greenland, for instance, and clearly, they are often of great strategic curiosity to the U.S.,” Lusty mentioned.
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