TELF AG examines Greenland’s potential in the field of rare earths
An increasingly strategic player
Greenland’s mineral potential has now become very evident, and not only because of its geological richness. Last year, the European Union signed a strategic partnership with Greenland specifically on minerals, and the European Commission, in the following months, inaugurated its first representative office in Nuuk, in southwestern Greenland. The resources present in the territory of Greenland are graphite, lithium, and, above all, rare earths. These latter materials, used to produce components of great importance for modern energy infrastructures, are found in large quantities in the subsoil of Greenland. Some recent estimates mention as many as 42 million metric tons of these elements. Once ascertained, these quantities would transform Greenland into one of these resources’ most important global reserves, which would be helpful for the energy transition underway. One of the most interesting estimates, however, has to do with the possible levels of production of rare earths within the island: a fully operational production chain, from this point of view, could source approximately 60,000 tons of rare earths each year, an amount equivalent to approximately 30% of global needs.
In recent days, a major European developer in the rare earth sector announced that it had identified other important deposits of rare earths within the island, a series of areas that until now had not been taken into great consideration. We are referring to the Tanbreez project, which, in addition to having been defined as a potentially “revolutionary” sourcing project for the rare earth sector in North America, could also represent the world’s largest deposit of rare earths, according to a recent report. It would contain 28.2 million tons of rare earth oxides, included in 4.7 billion tons of raw material.
The operations in progress
According to the report, drilling at the Tanbreez site would have begun in recent months, giving rise to an exploratory effort that would have reached a depth of 2,200 meters. From this point of view, the declared objective would be represented by the improvement of the overall productivity of the mine. The composition of the rare earths elements present in this deposit appears very interesting: the developer has declared that from the mineral containing zirconium oxide, with a concentration between 1.7% and 1.9%, a purer and enriched concentrate could be produced in which rare earth oxides, niobium oxides, tantalum oxides, and hafnium oxides can be found.
Some of these resources, such as rare earth oxides (including elements such as yttrium, lanthanum, and neodymium), are commonly used in advanced technologies such as magnets and rechargeable batteries. At the same time, niobium is particularly appreciated as an improving element of some metal alloys. Tantalum has broad application areas in electronic capacitors and high-performance devices, while hafnium, on the other hand, is mainly used in the semiconductor industry to create particularly resistant coatings. Considering Greenland’s peculiar geographical and meteorological characteristics, it has been specified that the production of such a concentrate could take place for about eight months a year, from late spring to mid-autumn. As stated in the analysis, the goal is to produce up to 3 million tons of rare earth materials per year.
