Looking into Greenland’s wealthy mineral historical past and why Trump is eyeing the nation | EUROtoday

The U.S. is sabre-rattling over Greenland as soon as once more. The huge island’s pure sources are again on the agenda, a yr after then-U.S. nationwide safety advisor Michael Waltz introduced: “This is about critical minerals. This is about natural resources.”

Greenland is endowed with each fossil fuels and demanding uncooked supplies. It possesses not less than 25 of the 34 uncooked supplies thought-about vital by the European Union.

The EU’s 2024 Critical Raw Materials Act seeks to enhance European provide safety of those, and each Trump and the EU wish to weaken Chinese dominance within the commerce. Meanwhile, huge reserves of oil are discovered offshore throughout japanese and western Greenland.

The worth of those sources is tough to estimate as the costs of oil and demanding uncooked supplies fluctuate wildly. Like with Venezuela’s oil, it’ll take an infinite amount of cash to construct the infrastructure wanted to mine the pure sources in Greenland. Mining and fossil gas initiatives are capital-intensive, requiring massive upfront investments with lengthy lead instances earlier than initiatives yield earnings.

Outside its capital Nuuk, there may be virtually no highway infrastructure in Greenland and restricted deep-water ports for big tankers and container ships.

Around the world, non-public mining and fossil gas firms can exploit public infrastructure comparable to roads, ports, energy technology, housing and specialist staff to make their operations worthwhile. In Greenland, big capital funding can be required to extract the primary truckload of minerals and the primary barrel of oil.

As such, the federal government faces a traditional dilemma. Let non-public multinationals extract however lose the lion’s share of revenues? Or insist on state possession however battle to seek out the capital and state capability to allow extraction.

Mining, previous and current

Greenland’s mineral riches have been recognized about for a while. In April 2025, Danish state broadcaster DR aired a documentary about how Denmark had traditionally siphoned off earnings from a cryolite mine in Greenland.

The programme led to a serious political and media disaster, with some believing it challenged perceptions of Greenland being financially depending on Denmark. Minerals are a outstanding however delicate subject in Greenland’s relationship to the remainder of the world.

Foreign corporations have tried to arrange viable mining industries in Greenland for many years, with little to indicate for it. Indeed, opposite to US President Donald Trump’s assertions, American firms have lengthy had the chance to enter Greenland’s mining sector. The capital depth twinned with extraordinarily harsh climactic situations imply that, thus far, no agency has begun business mining actions.

Greenland’s pure sources minister, Naaja Nathanielsen, stated in 2025 that she needed mining to develop into a “very good, stable supplement” to the nation’s overwhelming dependence on the fisheries business.

Yet in 2021, Greenland’s new socialist Inuit Ataqatigiit authorities banned uranium mining on air pollution grounds. Australian firm Energy Transitions Minerals (ETM) sued Greenland and Denmark in 2023 for 76 billion kroner (£8.9 billion), equal to virtually 4 instances Greenland’s GDP.

The mining firm claimed to have been robbed of future earnings after its uranium undertaking at Kuannersuit/Kvanefjeld was terminated.

Danish courts have struck down most of ETM’s claims as baseless and there was a report of issues ETM might declare chapter and thereby probably keep away from paying the big authorized charges. In a press release, ETM stated its subsidiary GM “worked in good faith for over a decade, in close cooperation with the Greenlandic and Danish governments”. It added that each governments had used GM to advertise Greenland as a protected vacation spot for mining traders.

But analysis in 2025 labelled related behaviour “feigned victimisation”. Generally, that is the place firms understand or place themselves victims of unfair processes quite than highly effective individuals involved with earnings.

Drilling within the Greenlandic crust would reverberate in Copenhagen as Greenland has a mining profit-sharing settlement with Denmark. As a part of the gradual switch of autonomy from Denmark, Greenland now retains possession over its pure sources.

However, Denmark gives an annual block grant of three.9 billion kroner (round half of Greenland’s state price range) to assist the home financial system, which is overwhelmingly comprised of fisheries. Denmark will reduce its block grant by 50% of mining earnings, which means primarily mining earnings are shared 50-50 between the 2 as much as the worth of the block grant.

Recently, the Australian-American company Critical Metals obtained development approval for a everlasting workplace for its Tanbreez undertaking to produce uncommon earth minerals, together with heavy uncommon earth components, in southern Greenland.

The following day, mining firm Amaroq declared that the US is contemplating investing in its mining initiatives in southern Greenland by way of EXIM, the US Export-Import Bank. If the state mortgage is authorised, will probably be Trump’s first to an abroad mining undertaking.

A latest government order from Trump earmarked US$5 billion (£3.7 billion) to assist mining initiatives vital for nationwide safety. This demonstrates the shut relationship between the extractive industries and navy exercise.

Fossil gas manufacturing is much less prone to occur any time quickly. In 2021, for environmental causes Greenland’s authorities banned fossil gas exploration and extraction. A parliamentary majority nonetheless favours the ban.

With unstable oil and fuel costs and the identical climactic and infrastructural challenges as for different pure sources, fossil gas manufacturing in Greenland is implausible even within the occasion of a full US takeover.

There are many the explanation why the Trump administration may wish to dominate the Arctic, not least to achieve relative energy over Russia and China. But pure useful resource extraction is unlikely to characteristic centrally.

What’s extra, the US already has navy bases in Greenland, following a defence settlement with Denmark. As such, it’s extra probably that latest US strikes are yet one more chapter within the return of the nation’s imperialist ambitions.