RARE-EARTHS FOR GREEN POWER THREATEN GREENLAND

Greenland, the world’s biggest island has huge resources of metals known as “‘rare-earths,” used to create compact, super-strong magnets which help power equipment such as wind turbines, electric vehicles, combat aircraft and weapons systems, Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Eric Onstad reported for Reuters.

The metals are abundant globally, but processing them is difficult and dirty - so much so that the United States, which used to dominate production, surrendered that position to China about 20 years ago.

As Greenland’s ice sheet and glaciers recede, two Australia-based mining companies - one seeking funding in the United States, the other part-owned by a Chinese state-backed firm - are racing for approval to dig into what the US Geological Survey (USGS) calls the world’s biggest undeveloped deposits of rare-earth metals.

The contest underscores the polluting side of clean energy, as well as how hard it is for the West to break free of China in the production of a vital resource.

Rare-earth metals have many uses, and last year China produced about 90% of them, according to Toronto-based consultancy Adamas Intelligence.

As U.S.-China tensions mount, President Joe Biden’s administration said last month it will review key U.S. supplies, including rare-earths, to ensure other countries cannot weaponize them against the United States.

Each Greenland mine would cost about $500 million to develop, the companies say. Both plan to send mined material away for final processing, an activity that is heavily concentrated in China. The only rare-earth mine now operating in the US – Mountain Pass in California – is partly owned by a Chinese state-backed company that currently sends material mined in the US to China for processing.

The first mine, a private initiative from an Australian geologist who has presented it to US officials, would not involve nuclear material. It has won preliminary environmental approval, but it needs cash and a processing plan.

The second one has already spent more than $100 million preparing to mine, has proven processing technology through its Chinese partner, and won initial political support from Greenland’s coalition government. But its plans include exporting uranium, a nuclear fuel, and it recently ran into strong opposition, including from residents of the nearby town of Narsaq. Tanbreez is the owner of the first Greenland site - Kringlerne, or Killavaat Alannguat in Greenlandic.

The company’s owner, Australian geologist Greg Barnes, told Reuters he had met U.S. officials weeks before Trump made the offer to buy Greenland. Barnes said he had put A$50 million ($38.6 million) of personal cash into the Greenland project.

New York-based investment banker Christopher Messina, managing director at capital markets advisory services firm Mannahatta Partners, is trying to assemble more financing. He says Kringlerne is “such a huge deposit that what comes out of it could satisfy manufacturing demands in the US for years to come.”

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