The Battle for Greenland Uranium (and Rare Earths and Copper and Gold, etc)

Uranium (Nuclear Minerals) / Exploration, Mining, Marketing, & Acquisitions

Date posted: 01/28/17

Maurice Walsh reports that sixty years later, the dream is that it will provide the key to Greenland independence. Since 2009, the island has been an autonomous division within Denmark, giving its 56,000 inhabitants control over local resources. The idea of independence within a generation or two is the dominant theme of local politics, even if the price of breaking free would be an annual Danish subsidy worth some $7,500 a head. There are few options when it comes to replacing that money. Fishing already accounts for more than 90% of Greenland exports. But in the last decade, mining has emerged as the means to industrialize Greenland, creating a financial base for independence. Government delegations have toured Australia and Canada, armed with geological surveys, aiming to convince the world-leading mining communities that Greenland is a rich source of minerals. As interest has grown, in 2013, the government granted four times the number of exploration licences approved in 2003, so has the pressure to repeal a 1988 ban on uranium mining. This prevented the extraction of uranium, as well as any minerals that might have uranium as a byproduct. In 2013, after a debate that divided the country, Greenland parliament voted narrowly to repeal the ban. Uranium has made Kvanefjeld the most controversial project, and the focus of debate. Kvanefjeld, near Narsaq, is one of many potential mines. Last month, an Australian company was given the green light to begin construction of a zinc and lead mine on the northern coast; there are currently 56 active licences to explore mining for gold, rubies, diamonds, nickel, copper and other minerals elsewhere. But uranium has made Kvanefjeld a controversial project, and the focus of a debate about whether this is the economic path that Greenland should pursue. (The most common argument raised against is the danger that radioactive dust will fall on neighboring settlements and farmland).