Greenland has more than 140 active mineral licenses, which must be issued before a mine can be built, but there are currently only two active mines in Greenland.
Erdur Ólafsson, CEO of Amarok, which operates one of the two active mines, insists his company’s gold mine in southern Greenland proves that mining operations in Greenland are possible with the right approach.
“Denmark is not really a resource-driven country, so the capital support we’ve had so far hasn’t been enough to push mining further,” Olafsson told NBC News. “Mining isn’t just about money. It’s about people. You have to physically move people around, you have to build infrastructure, you have to build roads, bridges, ports and all sorts of things.”
Not even Greenland’s harsh climate and sparse population (about 60,000 people live across the territory) deter Olafsson. “It’s important to remember that Alaska, Canada, Norway, Sweden and Russia all have mines in their Arctic regions, some of them very large. These are some of the best mines you can find in the world.”
“To have enough metals for the upcoming revolutions such as AI and similar technologies, new mines are always needed, or metals need to be reprocessed,” Olafsson said.
However, even after a mine is operational, fluctuations in mineral prices can force it to close, as happened at the Black Angel lead-zinc mine in Maamolilik in western Greenland. The mine, which operated from 1973 to 1990, was closed with significant untapped reserves and could not be reopened due to low zinc prices.
To support the U.S. rare earth industry and address this price sensitivity, in July the Department of Defense entered into a unique 10-year public-private partnership with U.S. mining company MP Materials to strengthen the U.S. rare earth supply chain and separate the U.S. magnet supply chain from Chinese sources with a rare earth mine in Colorado.
