President Donald Trump continues to call for the U.S. to acquire Greenland, a move that’s riling U.S. allies and shining a spotlight on access to the country’s wealth of minerals.
“Greenland should make the deal because Greenland does not want to see Russia or China take over,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday. “Basically, their defense is two dog sleds. You know that? You know what their defense is? Two dog sleds.”
Trump said he’d “love to make a deal” with Greenland, but said “one way or another, we’re going to have” the island, and rebuffed leasing or holding the territory for a short period of time.
The president’s rhetoric reflects a prioritization of natural resources — and particularly minerals — in foreign policy, which has led to mineral-heavy deals from Africa to Ukraine and beyond. Top Trump officials are likewise looking at Venezuela’s minerals sector after the dramatic capture of President Nicolás Maduro.
But the prospect of the U.S. taking Greenland, an autonomous territory in Denmark, is sending shock waves across the globe, including in Denmark, which has controlled Greenland for about 300 years. The country is not for sale, Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said last week. “Our country is not something that can be annexed or taken over simply because someone feels like it,” Nielsen wrote.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is slated to meet with Danish officials this week.
Even as the political drama unfolds, some mining companies in Greenland say they’re in talks with the Trump administration about financial deals. Greenland has also emerged as a possible target fordata center developers. The White House, for example, is in talks with a Canada-based mining company, Amaroq Ltd., to extract and explore for materials like gold, copper, germanium and gallium, among other critical mineral deposits. Amaroq has been working in the territory for more than a decade.
Amaroq and U.S. federal agencies have held discussions about potential investment opportunities, including “offtake agreements, infrastructure support and credit lines,” company CEO Eldur Ólafsson said during an interview with CNBC.
Some experts say the U.S. should focus on cooperating with the territory and allies — not unilateral action. “The United States has a significant opportunity to deepen strategic ties with Greenland, not through direct purchase or military intervention, but through coordinated investment,” Gracelin Baskaran, director of the Critical Minerals Security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in an online post last week.
Others warn that a mining boom on the rugged, ice-covered island is neither guaranteed nor near-term.
Thibault Denamiel, a fellow in the CSIS’ economics program, said the government’s focus on Greenland is more fundamentally about Arctic security, emerging shipping routes, and preventing adversarial influence — particularly from China — in a region that is becoming more accessible as the climate changes. “But mineral development there is not imminent or guaranteed,” said Denamiel. “Despite world-class geology, mining in Greenland faces major constraints: limited infrastructure, high costs, regulatory uncertainty — especially around uranium-associated deposits — and strong local opposition in some communities.”
Drew Horn, a former Trump official who focuses on Greenland and is now in the private sector, said developers need to overcome “logistical hurdles,” and only selective projects will move forward. Horn is founder and CEO of GreenMet, an advisory and investment firm working with investors in New York and Florida, and is working with a coalition of U.S. business leaders looking to invest in Greenland.
“I’m not trying to be one of these people here saying that, you know, the ice caps are melting and we’re just going to go recover $5 trillion in resources across the island,” said Horn. “It’s going to have to be done selectively, and only certain projects are going to work.”
What projects are underway?
There are few mining projects underway on the island, exploration is challenging and development may take years.
Baskaran, in her report, noted that Greenland has two large deposits of rare earth minerals that are drawing the bulk of the attention, including the Kvanefjeld and Tanbreez mine sites. Both deposits, she said, are located on the southern tip of the island in close proximity to the town of Narsaq.
The company Energy Transition Minerals is working on developing the Kvanefjeld deposit, the third-largest known land deposit of rare earths, and entered the permitting stage in 2015, she wrote. While the Tanbreez deposit is not as far along in development, it’s also estimated to contain a globally significant deposit of rare earths.
Eclipse Metals, an Australian company, is focusing on a mine that has rare earths in southwestern Greenland, while Amaroq is aimed at exploration and mining largely in the southwestern reaches of Greenland.
What are the challenges?
Greenland’s remote and rugged landscape offers no shortage of challenges for eager mining companies and developers of data centers, from environmental concerns to logistics.
Despite having large mineral deposits, experts say there are easier places for miners to go, and Greenland in many areas lacks roads, railways, and broader infrastructure.
Yet another concern is the prospect of mining in a fragile Arctic environment, much of which is encased in ice and difficult to access and mine economically.
Accessing minerals — crucial for developing everything from renewable energy and electric cars to cellphones and advanced military technologies — has also been complicated by their proximity to uranium. Greenland has banned uranium mining.
Horn with GrenMet said projects need to be coastal, located in the south, where there are not year-round ice problems, and have a year-round capability to ship and transport with reinforced hulls, which he said is standard in Arctic and sub Arctic locations.
What about China?
The U.S. is not the only global power interested in expanding influence in Greenland and the Arctic region, Baskaran wrote, noting that China in 2018 launched its Arctic policy, also known as the Polar Silk Road, in which it controversially referred to itself as a “Near-Arctic State.”
“Over the past seven years, China has attempted to grow its footprint in the region through scientific research expeditions, infrastructure investments, and natural resource acquisitions,” she wrote. “By most metrics, the strategy has failed to take off, as major projects continue to be blocked due to security concerns.”
China’s continued interest in Greenland reflects the island’s geostrategic importance, she wrote, and China’s global lead in rare earth mining and processing expertise keeps the U.S. adversary on the table as a potential future mining partner in Greenland.
Baskaran in the report noted that Greenland’s minister of business and mineral resources recently warned that while Western partnerships are preferred, without an influx of investment, Greenland will have to turn to other partners, including China.
Chinese rare earth company Shenghe Resources is the largest shareholder in the Kvanefjeld mine, with 12.5 percent ownership, Baskaran noted. The company signed a memorandum of understanding in 2018 to lead the processing and marketing of materials extracted from the site, she said.
The Associated Press contributed.
