Greenland Has Tons of Minerals. So Where Are All the Miners?

Summary

Greenland’s Untapped Mineral Wealth: A Land of Opportunity and Obstacles

Introduction

In the March 20, 2025 episode of The Journal, hosted by The Wall Street Journal and Gimlet, Jessica Mendoza and Suna Rasmussen delve into the paradoxical landscape of Greenland—a nation abundant in minerals yet surprisingly devoid of substantial mining activity. Titled “Greenland Has Tons of Minerals. So Where Are All the Miners?”, the episode explores the multifaceted challenges that hinder the realization of Greenland’s mining potential, juxtaposed against its significant geopolitical and economic implications.

Greenland’s Mineral Abundance and Strategic Importance

Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, stands as the world's largest island, covering nearly a quarter of the United States' territory. Despite its vast size, it is sparsely populated with only about 57,000 residents. Beneath its icy surface lies an estimated 43 of the 50 critical minerals deemed vital by the United States for national security, including rare earth elements essential for technologies ranging from microchips to fighter jets.

Suna Rasmussen, a Danish journalist with a long-standing interest in Greenland, encapsulates the island’s allure:

“Greenland is a mind-blowing place. It’s a huge landmass. It’s nearly one fourth of the territory of the United States. 80% of the island is covered by ice. In some places, the ice sheet is over a mile thick.” [(02:03)]

The strategic location of Greenland in the Arctic amplifies its geopolitical significance, especially amidst rising tensions between Western powers and Russia. Control over Greenland’s mineral resources could grant considerable economic and defensive advantages, particularly as the world seeks to diversify supply chains away from China’s dominance in rare earth mineral production.

The Enigma of Inactive Mining

Despite the apparent gold rush potential, actual mining activities in Greenland remain minimal. Rasmussen sets out to uncover the reasons behind this stagnation. Accompanied by Jessica Mendoza, he travels to Narsak, a picturesque town at Greenland’s southern tip, to meet with executives from Energy Transition Minerals, an Australian mining company eyeing the Kvanefjeld site.

Encountering formidable natural barriers, Rasmussen describes their journey:

“We borrowed two snow suits… got on the back of two snowmobiles and… made it to just below the mine entrance. But the whole thing was snowed over. So we got as close as we could.” [(08:04)]

This expedition highlights the sheer inaccessibility of Greenland’s terrain. Transportation is a significant hurdle—there are no roads connecting settlements, and maritime routes are perilous due to floating ice. Additionally, the local labor pool is limited, and the cumbersome licensing process further deters potential miners.

Regulatory and Environmental Hurdles

In 2021, the Greenlandic government implemented a stringent law banning the mining of minerals containing a specific threshold of radioactive uranium. Rasmussen notes:

“It's essentially impossible to extract these rare earths in Kvanefjeld without also extracting uranium. So they kind of fell victim to this new law.” [(10:56)]

This regulatory change has had profound repercussions. Energy Transition Minerals filed an arbitration case against the Greenlandic and Danish governments, seeking either the right to proceed with mining or $11.5 billion in compensation—an amount that dwarfs Greenland’s entire GDP of around $3 billion.

Environmental concerns also play a pivotal role. The proposed Kvanefjeld project would generate substantial radioactive waste, with the company suggesting the storage of 100 million tons in a mountain lake secured by dams. This proposition has been criticized by experts and met with anxiety from locals who rely on pristine natural resources for their livelihoods.

Local Opposition and Social Impact

The social fabric of Narsak is deeply entwined with its natural environment. Rasmussen recounts an encounter with local protesters advocating for the preservation of their land:

“I spoke to this young 25-year-old woman, indigenous people… ‘Why is it always us, the indigenous Inuit people, who have to suffer for the development of the western world?’” [(13:24)]

The Inuit population, having lived under Danish control for centuries, views the mining project as a continuation of colonial exploitation. The introduction of large-scale mining threatens their traditional ways of life, which are built on fishing and foraging. The proposed mining operations could irrevocably alter the local ecosystem and societal structures.

Conversely, proponents argue that mining could revitalize Greenland’s economy, which has been struggling with high unemployment since the closure of a local fishing factory a decade ago. Energy Transition Minerals promises 400 jobs, presenting the project as a pathway to economic self-sufficiency and a step towards Greenlandic independence from Denmark.

Geopolitical Implications and Global Supply Chains

The potential success of mining in Greenland extends beyond local and national boundaries. Successfully establishing profitable mining operations could encourage other companies to invest in Greenland, thereby strengthening the West’s efforts to build an alternative supply chain independent of China’s dominance in mineral refining.

Rasmussen emphasizes the complexity of such endeavors:

“It’s so much more complicated than just taking control of a piece of land.” [(18:03)]

Despite the availability of critical minerals, the absence of refining infrastructure in the West means that even if Greenland begins producing minerals, the global supply chain would still heavily rely on China for processing. This dependency underscores the intricate interplay between resource availability and technological infrastructure in shaping global economic and security landscapes.

Conclusion

The episode of The Journal vividly portrays Greenland as a land of immense potential hindered by natural, regulatory, and socio-political barriers. While the island’s vast mineral wealth positions it as a strategic asset in global geopolitics and economic diversification efforts, the path to unlocking this wealth is fraught with challenges. Balancing economic aspirations with environmental stewardship and respecting the rights and lifestyles of indigenous populations remains a critical and complex endeavor.

As Rasmussen aptly concludes:

“The place is so difficult and so complicated… it wouldn’t happen anytime in [President Trump’s] presidency.” [(19:24)]

This statement encapsulates the broader theme of the episode—the intricate and often insurmountable obstacles that transform Greenland from a mineral-rich territory into a symbol of both opportunity and caution in the modern geopolitical arena.

Transcript

[Jessica Mendoza]

Before this year, how much time did you spend thinking about Greenland?

[Suna Rasmussen]

Being Danish, I've actually always wanted to go to Greenland.

[Jessica Mendoza]

That's our colleague Suna Rasmussen.

[Suna Rasmussen]

I've tried to convince my editors to go, to send me to Greenland for a couple of years, but with very little success. But then all of a sudden, I also have a message tonight for the incredible people of Greenland. Everyone's talking about Greenland. Well, we need Greenland for national security purposes. I've been told that for a long time. It can be quite seductive to just listen to the headlines coming from President Trump about seizing control of a foreign country. And I think we're gonna get it. One way or the other, we're gonna get it. But once you start digging a little bit, pun intended, you see that the whole the issue is so much more compl. As with many other things. Right.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Because of President Trump's interest in Greenland, this past February, Suna finally got to live his dream.

[Suna Rasmussen]

Well, I've sort of grown up with Greenland as part of my sort of awareness since I was a child. So I just wanted to go because it's a place like no other right now. Here's my chance.

[Jessica Mendoza]

And what was your impression when you finally went?

[Suna Rasmussen]

Greenland is a mind blowing place. It's a huge landmass. It's nearly one fourth of the territory of the United States. 80% of the island is covered by ice. In some places, the ice sheet is over a mile thick. So you have this country that in some respects is completely different from anything you've seen elsewhere in Europe. Just the rawness of the nature, the culture itself is indigenous Inuit culture.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark. It's the largest island in the world, yet it's home to only 57,000 people. And this small population lives on top of a wealth of minerals, enough minerals to potentially transform the global supply chain. Some mining experts say that Greenland could supply North America and Europe with critical minerals for decades.

[Suna Rasmussen]

You know, it sounds like it has all the makings of a gold rush, but at the same time, there's very little actual mining taking place. So what I was hoping to understand was why that is. Like, why is it so difficult to mine in Greenland and what's holding people back?

[Jessica Mendoza]

Welcome to the Journal, our show about money, business and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Thursday, March 20th. Coming up on the show, Greenland has the makings of a mining boom. So where is everyone?

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[Jessica Mendoza]

Greenland has held the imagination of explorers for centuries. The US Started looking into the island's resource potential around the time of the Civil War. And now, as the world's superpowers scramble for resources, Greenland has again become a coveted frontier.

[Suna Rasmussen]

The value of Greenland is twofold. It is especially valuable because of its strategic location. So it's placed right in the Arctic, which in recent years has taken on a sort of increased geopolitical importance as tensions have heated up between the US And Russia, the West and Russia. So that's one reason why it's important for the US But Greenland is also home to extraordinary underground wealth.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Greenland is an estimated 43 of the 50 critical minerals the US considers vital to national security, including rare earth minerals, which are used to make everything from microchips to fighter jets. So whoever controls Greenland's supply could gain an economic and defensive edge. Right now, the country that dominates the global market for rare earths and other Minerals is China. 60% of the world's rare earth minerals are mined there. China is also responsible for 90% of the world's rare earth refining activity. That's the process that turns those minerals into a more useful form that makes.

[Suna Rasmussen]

The west hugely vulnerable to, for example, a trade war. China can wage its control of these minerals in a trade war against the US against Europe. So in that sense, the stakes are really high.

[Jessica Mendoza]

How much of these minerals does Greenland have?

[Suna Rasmussen]

Yeah, it's a good question. We don't actually know. There's a lot of exploration happening in Greenland, but we don't have a lot of data showing sort of exactly what that wealth consists of.

[Jessica Mendoza]

To witness Greenland's mining potential for himself, Suna flew to the capital, Nuuk. From there, he took another plane and then a helicopter and finally a taxi. It's so funny to have all of that, like you're traveling over raw terrain and then it's like and then we're gonna call a taxi.

[Suna Rasmussen]

Yeah, there was one taxi waiting for us outside. Cause the whole town can see when the helicopter arrives. So I think the local taxi driver just got in his car and went to pick us up.

[Jessica Mendoza]

The town Suna traveled so far to see is called Narsak.

[Suna Rasmussen]

Narsak is like, on the very southern tip of Greenland. It's on the sea, and it's kind of placed at the bottom of a mountain plateau, which is this place called Kvanefjeld. And the houses in town are painted these bright colors, like bright red, bright green, bright blue, and dotted across the landscape, both sort of at the foot of the mountain. And some of the houses are sort of dotted up along the ridge of the mountain. So it's very picturesque.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Yeah, I was going to say, that must be so beautiful against the ice. Suna was sharing the town's only hotel with a group of executives from an Australian mining company called Energy Transition Minerals. The company had been exploring the area since 2007, hoping to eventually build a mine at a site called Kavanafeld. The site sits in the mountains above Narsak and contains an estimated 1 billion tons of minerals. During his trip, Suna and a photographer embarked on a journey from the town to Kavanafeld. Some executives from Energy Transition Minerals set out on the same trek. The two groups quickly ran into some challenges.

[Suna Rasmussen]

The entire mountain pass was snowed over and covered in ice, and the roads, like, were impassable. What the photographer and I did was we found two local Greenlanders who had snowmobiles and who were willing to take us into where the mine is. So we borrowed two snow suits, onesies, basically thick onesies from a local farmer, these onesies that reeked of sheep. Oh, wow. And then got on the back of two snowmobiles and then went in through this pathless gorge into. Into the mountain and made it to sort of just below the mine entrance. But the whole thing was snowed over. So we got as close as we could, and we got closer than the company. The company itself couldn't get closer than about six or seven miles.

[Jessica Mendoza]

So what did you learn from that mission, besides, you know, how to travel by snowmobile?

[Suna Rasmussen]

Well, I think the fact that this company had traveled from, the executives had traveled from Singapore, from Perth, Sydney, and Australia, all the way to this small town in Greenland and still turned around, that, to me, spoke volumes about just how inaccessible Greenland is. And this is southern Greenland. Remember, this is the most accessible part of the country because this is the warmest part of the country, and access.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Is only half the challenge. There's also a cumbersome licensing process to deal with, and the local labor pool is small. Transporting materials in and out of Greenland is another huge problem.

[Suna Rasmussen]

There's no roads connecting settlements in Greenland, and shipping is treacherous because of all the floating ice off the coast of Greenland. So even if you were to extract minerals from the ground, you still have to put it on a ship and somehow get it off off the island, which is tricky in many parts because of all this floating ice.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Then there's the politics. In 2021, the Greenlandic government passed a law banning the mining of minerals that contained a certain amount of the radioactive material, uranium.

[Suna Rasmussen]

The prime minister who passed this uranium law back in 2021 is from Narsak. So he's like a local. One of the reasons that we have taken the steps to ban uranium mining because we also think about our children and grandchildren and their children and the grandchildren. After he actually ran and won the election on a campaign promise, his main campaign promise was this uranium law. He said, I'm going to pass this law so we can protect our local.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Environment for energy transition minerals. That uranium law threw a massive wrench into their mining plans.

[Suna Rasmussen]

And it's essentially impossible to extract these rare earths in Kvanefjeld without also extracting uranium. So they kind of fell victim to this new law. And since then the project has essentially been paused.

[Jessica Mendoza]

In response, the company filed an arbitration case against the Greenlandic and Danish governments, demanding either the right to mine Khvanafeld or $11.5 billion in compensation. To put that in perspective, Greenland's entire GDP is around $3 billion. While energy transition minerals wages this legal dispute, it's simultaneously fighting on another front in Narsac with the people who live there. How company executives are trying to win over the locals.

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[Jessica Mendoza]

Upon landing in Narsac, executives from Energy Transition Minerals were confronted by a group of local protesters. They wore brightly colored vests that said uranium no thank you in Greenlandic.

[Suna Rasmussen]

You are not welcome here as long as you don't respect us as a people who is able to make their own decisions according to our knowledge. I spoke to this young 25 year old woman, indigenous people. I mean, this is our land. And her argument was like, well, why is it always us, the indigenous Inuit people, who have to suffer for the development of the western world? This is a very sort of colonialist way of looking at economic development. So there's that argument in Narsak, and that's a very emotional one for an Inuit population who also for decades, for centuries, has lived under the control of Denmark.

[Jessica Mendoza]

If the Kavana field mining project moves forward, it would produce a lot of radioactive waste. Energy Transition Minerals has proposed storing 100 million tons of that waste in a mountain lake walled off by two dams. Experts have questioned the safety of that proposal and some locals are very concerned.

[Suna Rasmussen]

And these are people in Narsaq, remember, who live off the land. They live off berries they pick in the mountains. They live off fishing. So they're very concerned about the environmental impact. They're also concerned about, about the impact on their traditional way of life. Like a big mining project will completely upend life in this part of Greenland where these largely Inuit population has maintained a certain way of life for decades, if not centuries, right?

[Jessica Mendoza]

Energy Transition Minerals has insisted that the town will be safe.

[Suna Rasmussen]

We live in a rapidly changing world, a world that is becoming more environmentally conscious.

[Jessica Mendoza]

This is from a promotional video that the company posted online.

[Suna Rasmussen]

To ensure minimal impact on the environment and importantly, the safety and well being of the community, the Kavanaveld project has been meticulously planned.

[Jessica Mendoza]

During Suna's visit, the company hosted a dinner for Narsac locals who were interested in the project. Executives treated them to a dinner of lamb burgers and craft drinks distilled from herbs picked from the nearby mountains.

[Suna Rasmussen]

They invited these Local farmers, landowners, other people with sort of influence in the community. They were then pleading their case and socializing, buttering up the local power brokers. One thing they were trying to do was pitch to a local farmer, the biggest local sheep farmer in Narsack, that he should house hundreds of employees that would be working on this project on his farm, which he seemed happy to do because he's probably, he probably stands to make a healthy buck from that.

[Jessica Mendoza]

In its messaging, Energy Transition Minerals has leaned into the economic benefits that mining could bring to Narsac. Ever since the town's fishing factory shuttered a decade ago, the population has struggled with higher than average unemployment rates. If the mine is built, Energy Transition Minerals has promised 400 jobs during the operation. Locals who support the mining project see it as an opportunity to get their economy back on track. Another argument in favor of the mining site taps into the widely popular Greenlandic push for independence from Denmark. To become self sufficient, Greenland would need to harness its mineral wealth. Supporters of the Kavanafjeld project see it as a step towards advancing that cause. How serious is the divide between those who are pro mining and those who are anti?

[Suna Rasmussen]

The thing is like sort of the main issue that divides the local community. So I spoke to people who have had family members that were on the opposing side of the issue and they've fallen out to an extent where they barely talk anymore in a town of 1300 people. So this is something that creates a lot of tension.

[Jessica Mendoza]

While the Kavana Field mining project is a big deal for locals, it also has global implications.

[Suna Rasmussen]

If they manage to actually mine in this area and start shipping out the minerals, I think that could probably give other companies a bit of confidence that it's possible to mine in Greenland and make a profit. Greenland potentially can be very crucial in the West's quest to build an alternative supply chain outside of China.

[Jessica Mendoza]

But although Greenland's minerals would diversify the world's reserve, the western portion of the supply chain still stops short of a finished product. Remember, China is behind over 90% of the world's rare earth refining activity.

[Suna Rasmussen]

Yeah. And that is sort of, I guess a bit of an irony here is that the US lacks large scale refining capacity of rare earths and the US already sends the majority of its rare earth minerals to China for refining, which is why getting your hands on these critical minerals is the first step. I think it's also worth remembering that when President Trump sort of reiterates that maybe the US will just take Greenland, just take control of it, even if he were to take control of Greenland Mining. The place is so difficult and so complicated that it wouldn't happen anytime in his presidency. It's very easy to sort of speak in superlatives about a place like Greenland and about the untapped mineral wealth there is in Greenland, when in fact getting to those minerals, but also finding use for the minerals, refining them, putting them in this supply chain in a way that's sustainable for Western national security interests. It's so much more complicated than just taking control of a piece of land.

[Jessica Mendoza]

That's all for today. Thursday, March 20 the Journal is a co production of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal. If you like our show, follow us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We're out every weekday afternoon. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.