TELF AG analyzes Greenland’s mineral potential
A new frontier for strategic minerals
The need to capture strategic resources for the development of green economies, such as minerals deemed strategic for the ecological transition, could have the effect of promoting international cooperation between nations, between different regional blocs, or between some of the major international entities (such as the European Union) and some individual nations naturally rich in mineral resources. The fact that the European Union is still laboriously trying to build its production chain of mineral raw materials through the reactivation of old mining sites, or the exploration of new deposits seems to have given a further boost to international diplomacy in the field of strategic raw materials, encouraging the creation of new agreements and new collaborations focused on this sector.
It is not surprising, in this regard, that a few days ago, an office of the European Commission was officially established in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. The new opening seems to be a prelude to the start of an intense strategic and economic collaboration between the European institutions and the large island belonging to the kingdom of Denmark, which in recent years has had the opportunity to stand out on the global scene for its massive wealth of raw materials minerals with great strategic potential.
Naturally, this is not an agreement exclusively based on strategic minerals. Still, in all likelihood, the aspects linked to the research, exploration, and possible processing of materials considered to be of great importance for the energy transition, such as rare earths, could certainly play a relevant role. The mineral wealth of the countries of the North of the world is certainly nothing new: Scandinavian nations such as Sweden and Norway have some of the best global infrastructure in this sector, and the fact that one of the largest global plants could soon be built there for the processing of rare earths it certainly represents quite eloquent data.
The geological richness of Greenland
Over the years, Greenland has attracted international interest for its evident geological richness. In fact, in the frozen subsoil of this large island, there are 25 of the 34 strategic minerals that the European Union has included in the list of the most valuable for completing the European Green Deal, i.e., the achievement of all objectives related to neutrality and decarbonization. The opening of a European Commission office in these latitudes could, therefore, represent the first piece of a much broader collaboration, which in its subsequent phases could allow the European Union to resolve its substantial inability to access certain strategic raw materials for the green transition. From this point of view, being able to count on a partner like Greenland would allow Europe to get access to resources such as lithium, tantalum, and zirconium, of which Greenland is naturally rich.
One of the most interesting data relates to Greenland’s potential in the rare earth sector. According to some estimates, a fully operational mining chain on the island could extract around 60,000 tonnes of rare earths yearly, equivalent to approximately 30% of the world’s needs. In addition to rare earths, zinc, nickel, iron, and lead deposits have already been identified in Greenland, and several international companies are actively exploring the island’s subsoil in search of mineral resources: among these are Australian, US, and Czech.
