President Donald Trump’s new Greenland deal includes mineral rights, he announced Wednesday — just hours after he insisted on the global stage that accessing rare earths and minerals were not a driving force in his push to acquire the country.
“They’re going to be involved in mineral rights, and so are we,” Trump told CNBC’s Joe Kernen in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The White House did not respond when asked for details about which mineral rights the administration is pursuing.
Trump’s comments followed a broader announcement that the administration — while backing off the threat of tariffs and use of force — has reached an agreement that will allow the U.S. to access to the self-governing Danish territory. Trump in a Truth Social post said he and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte had “formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region,” and that Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff would be leading those negotiations.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen welcomed the dialogue on Thursday, but reiterated that Greenland’s sovereignty is not up for discussion.
On stage at Davos, Trump insisted his focus on the island is solely about security while acknowledging the difficulty of accessing minerals there.
In Greenland, “to get to this rare earth, you got to go through hundreds of feet of ice. That’s not the reason we need it. We need it for strategic national security and international security,” Trump said during his speech.
The “enormous unsecured island” lies in “a key strategic location between the United States, Russia and China,” Trump said. “That’s exactly where it is, right smack in the middle.”
Vance during a speech in Toledo, Ohio, on Thursday echoed that the Danish territory is critical for American national security “because our entire missile defense relies on security” in the Arctic region.
“The negotiations with NATO are going fine,” Vance added. “Fundamentally, NATO and the Danes and everybody else have to recognize the simple fact that this matters not just to American security, but to world security. So we’re gonna keep on trying to make sure that we secure that land mass so that we can protect the American people, as we’ve done and will continue to do.”
Energy Secretary Chris Wright downplayed the opportunities for rare earths extraction in Greenland in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Thursday.
“Think of, you know, it’s 50,000 people, and it’s a tougher climate to do business in, physical climate. Rule of Law, fine, but it’s a tougher physical climate there,” he said. “I think when President Trump talks about that, it’s more what would be additional upside for the residents of Greenland, yes, American businesses, as we just talked about in Venezuela, they’ll go in far-flung places.”
Economic opportunities are limited in Greenland, Wright said, “so this is more his pitch … increased jobs, opportunity and wages for Greenlanders, but again, they’re not going to be of the scale that are going to move the needle for the United States,” he said.
Challenges, opportunities
Greenland’s rare earth metals and minerals deposits remain undeveloped despite ranking eighth globally for reserves, largely due to a dearth of infrastructure, regulatory barriers and geographic constraints, according to a report the energy consulting firm Wood Mackenzie released Thursday.
The territory has no active rare earth mines, and most projects there are in early-stage development, the firm noted, even as demand increases as countries like the U.S. move to diversify away from China.
The Australian company Energy Transition Metals’ development of the Kvanefjeld project has been stalled since 2002 due to legal challenges over uranium, Wood Mackenzie noted.
Another project in play is Critical Metals’ Tanbreez project, which received a $120 million letter of interest from the U.S. Export-Import Bank and is planning to launch a pilot facility later this year. Tanbreez, through a joint venture, would supply a facility in Louisiana, the report states.
Any companies hoping to develop a robust mining sector in Greenland would have to create their own transportation and energy infrastructure, a challenge made greater given that the island’s population is small and there’s a dearth of skilled mining labor.
Adding to those hurdles are freezing temperatures, Arctic winds and limited daylight, as well as regulatory uncertainty given that Greenland’s Parliament in 2021 banned uranium exploration and exploitation, the report notes.
“Projects in Greenland must compete for investment with projects in countries such as Canada, Australia and the U.S. that have more developed infrastructure and established mining sectors,” said David Riley, a senior research analyst at Wood Mackenzie, in a statement. “The lack of infrastructure, low labour pool and high capital requirements are the main barriers to development.”
“We expect these to remain major limiting factors on Greenland’s ability to establish a rare earth mining sector, irrespective of whether Greenland remains a Danish territory, becomes a U.S. territory, or looks to independence,” Riley added.
Yet some mining companies in Greenland say they’ve been huddling with the Trump administration about financial deals, while other business percolates.
The CEO of a Canada-based mining company, Amaroq Ltd., has said the company is in talks with the White House about extracting and exploring for materials like gold, copper, germanium and gallium, among other critical mineral deposits.
Greenland has also emerged as a possible target for data center developers, and has drawn the attention of tech pioneers.
KoBold Metals, a privately held California-based company backed by billionaire Bill Gates that uses artificial intelligence to locate and dig up rare earth minerals, has explored the island.
In 2021, Kobold inked an agreement with Bluejay Mining to search Greenland for critical materials. Kobold briefly explored the Greenland during the summer of 2022 before exiting the island and the partnership, selling its share in the Disko-Nuussuaq nickel-copper-cobalt project in Greenland to Bluejay’s successor, 80 Miles. But Kobold stands to benefit if a smelter is ever built at the site, according to regulatory filings.
KoBold is also working to finalize a deal to buy a massive lithium project in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Trump recently inked a minerals-heavy peace deal.
Robin Bravender contributed to this report.
