The village of Narsaq is home to one of the world’s richest deposits of rare earth minerals. (Kanus/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

The Scramble for Greenland’s Riches

The island has an enormous trove of rare elements needed to manufacture high-tech devices and wind turbines. Can they be mined without destroying the delicate landscape?

April 4, 2022

By Jack Ewing and Patricia Smith

Greenland is known for frozen landscapes, remote fjords, and glaciers that heave giant sheets of ice into the sea.

But increasingly this huge, remote island has become known for something else too: rare minerals. And that has made Greenland the site of a modern-day “gold rush,” as superpowers (including the United States), billionaire investors, and big mining companies jostle for influence.

The recent interest in Greenland is all due to climate change and the world’s mad dash to accelerate the development of green technology.

As global warming melts the ice that covers 80 percent of the island, demand has exploded for Greenland’s potentially abundant reserves of hard-to-find minerals that had been locked under the frozen landscape for millennia. These so-called rare earth minerals, with names like neodymium and dysprosium, are used in wind turbines, electric motors, and many other electronic devices. They’re essential raw materials as the world tries to break its addiction to fossil fuels (see “What Are They For?” below).

China now has a near monopoly on the global production and sale of these minerals. So the realization that Greenland could be a rival supplier has set off a frantic race for control of Greenland’s hidden treasure.

“The discovery of rare earths in Greenland is important and significant for several reasons,” says Mikaa Mered, a Greenland expert at the Paris Institute of Political Studies. “Who gets access to these deposits will get a decisive edge in the battle for energy transition technology markets.”

A Mecca for Prospectors

Greenland, with a population of only 58,000 people, is part of Denmark but has its own parliament that’s responsible for most domestic affairs. The relationship dates back to the early 18th century, when Denmark established colonial rule over Greenland.

Today, the island’s population is about 90 percent Indigenous and about 10 percent of Danish ancestry. Denmark still determines Greenland’s foreign policy and subsidizes its budget with about $620 million a year. Some in Greenland’s government see the country’s mineral deposits as a way to work toward independence from Denmark.

Greenland has been a mecca for prospectors since the 1800s because of its geology. There are almost no trees, and vegetation is sparse, so it’s much easier for geologists to examine the rocks and find likely places to dig for valuable ore. Climate change and the melting of mass amounts of ice has exposed vastly more potential deposits. And a less frozen Arctic has opened up more trade routes for ships carrying ore.

Reflecting Greenland’s rising importance, the U.S. has recently stepped up its diplomatic presence, opening a consulate in 2020 in Nuuk, the capital, for the first time since the 1950s. Last year, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Greenland and met with members of its government.

An Unfrozen Future

Receding ice has made Greenland’s rare mineral deposits more accessible, and companies and nations are looking to take advantage.

An End to Their Way of Life?

Greenland is already suffering from the effects of climate change. In August, it rained for the first time ever at a Greenlandic research station 500 miles inside the Arctic Circle. Greenlanders have long depended on sea ice to be able to fish from and to travel across. Now in many places, that sea ice isn’t strong enough to do those things safely.

The world is being reshaped by the changing climate and rising demand for electric vehicles and other green technology that require bits of rare metals. These forces are converging at Narsaq, a village on Greenland’s southwest coast where fishing is the main industry and most of the predominantly Indigenous residents live in wooden houses with tar paper roofs.

The rocky heights above Narsaq, population about 1,700, contain what may be some of the richest concentrations of rare minerals anywhere. That’s attracted Greenland Minerals, an Australian company backed by Chinese investors, that had hoped to blast an open-pit mine—until it ran into local opposition from residents who fear the end of their way of life.

The mine would bring jobs and tax revenue to the village, but it would also produce radioactive uranium.

“I was aware that this thing would affect us,” says Mariane Paviasen, who formed a protest group in 2013 to fight Greenland Minerals, the mining company that proposed the Narsaq project. “So I had to do something.”

Last year, Paviasen and her group—an alliance of sheep farmers, fishermen, and Indigenous residents—succeeded in electing a party to Greenland’s parliament that promises to stop the Narsaq mine. But Paviasen knows that many powerful interests are still eyeing Greenland’s mineral wealth and the fight is ongoing.

The mine would bring jobs but also produce radioactive uranium.

At the moment, Greenland has only two active mines—one producing rubies and the other anorthosite, which is used in paints, plastic coatings, and special kinds of glass. But dozens of companies from the U.S. and other nations have exploration projects underway, and five have licenses to begin digging.

“The mining companies know what we have in Narsaq,” Paviasen says. “We are not safe in the future.”

Like almost all settlements in Greenland, Narsaq can be reached only by sea or air. Most people speak Greenlandic, an Indigenous language that is related to Inuit languages spoken in Canada and Alaska. The main employers are the government and a small factory that cleans and freezes halibut, salmon, and shrimp caught by local people for export to Asia.

Carsten Snejbjerg/The New York Times

“The mining companies know what we have in Narsaq. We are not safe in the future.” —Mariane Paviasen, activist

Narsaq residents were initially in favor of the nearby mine, attracted by the promise of badly needed jobs. But opinion shifted as people learned more about the project. Tailings, the leftover waste from ore processing, would be deposited in a lake that lies above the town. Narsaq residents worry that a dam wouldn’t be enough to keep radioactive water from reaching their homes. Residents, whose lives have already been upended by climate change, say they don’t want to suffer even more so that the rest of the world can drive electric cars.

On Narsaq’s docks, where the men head out to hunt seals or look for minke whales, opposition to the mine seems widespread.

“My children and grandchildren would also like to live in this town,” says Emanuel Joelsen, one of the whale hunters. (Whale meat is still a big part of Greenlanders’ diet, and they are allowed under international agreements to hunt a limited number of the endangered animals.)

Some local people support the mining project. “It’s about jobs, work, a lot of money for the local people,” says Jens Karl Petersen, a cook in Narsarsuaq, about 30 miles from Narsaq.

‘It’s Worth Fighting For’

On the opposite side of the fjord from Narsaq is a mining project whose main backer has not generated the same hostility as Greenland Minerals. Greg Barnes, a prospector from Australia, has a license to mine the area, known as Tanbreez. The site has only trace amounts of radioactivity, Barnes says, but rich deposits of metals like tantalum, used in mobile phones, and zirconium, used in fuel cells and various kinds of electronics.

Barnes says U.S. officials “see us as a solution” to China’s dominance of rare earths.

Mining executives say they’re aware of the need to pay attention to climate concerns. Some mining companies see a chance to establish Greenland as a reputable source of the raw materials for emissions-free power generation and transportation.

Greenland Minerals has kept a low profile since the 2021 elections brought an anti-uranium government to power, but it has not given up on mining near Narsaq. The company is looking for ways to address local concerns, for example, by shipping the minerals somewhere else for processing rather than separating out the uranium in Narsaq.

But activists like Paviasen aren’t easily soothed. She knows how important Greenland’s clean air and water are.

“This is one of the most beautiful places in Greenland,” Paviasen says. “It’s worth fighting for.”