Greenland The harsh environment, lack of major infrastructure and difficult geology have so far prevented anyone from building a mine to extract the sought-after rare earth elements required by many high-tech products. Even if President Donald Trump wins his presidency Trying to control the Arctic islandThese challenges will not go away.
Trump has prioritized breaking China’s grip on global supplies of rare earth elements since it has become the world’s second-largest economy. Sharply restricted Who can buy them after the United States imposed broad tariffs last spring. The Trump administration has Hundreds of millions of dollars invested And even Quotas taken In several companies. Now the president is once again floating the idea that taking control of Greenland from Denmark could solve the problem.
“We’re going to do something in Greenland whether they like it or not,” Trump said Friday.
But Greenland may not be able to produce rare earth elements for years, if ever. Some companies are trying anyway, but their efforts to extract some of the 1.5 million tons of rare earths encrusted in Greenland’s rocks have generally not progressed beyond the exploratory phase. Trump’s fascination with the island nation may be more about countering Russian and Chinese influence in the Arctic than securing any of the hard-to-pronounce elements like neodymium and terbium that are used to produce the high-energy magnets needed in electric cars, wind turbines, robots and fighter planes, among other products.
“The focus on Greenland has always been more about geopolitical posturing — strategic military interests and a stock-peddling narrative — than a realistic solution to supply the technology sector,” said Tracy Hughes, founder and CEO of the Critical Minerals Institute. “This hype far outweighs the hard science and economics behind these important minerals.”
Trump emphasized these geopolitical concerns at the White House on Friday.
“We don’t want Russia or China going to Greenland, which if we don’t take Greenland, Russia or China could be your next door neighbor. That’s not going to happen,” Trump said.
The main challenge facing mining in Greenland is “of course the remoteness,” says Diogo Rosa, an economic geologist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. “Even in the south where it is populated there are few roads and no railways, so any mining project has to create this potential.” Power must also be generated locally, and a specialized workforce must be brought in.
Another concern is the potential for extracting trace minerals in the fragile Arctic environment, at a time when Greenland is trying to build a thriving tourism industry, said Patrick Schroeder, a senior fellow in the Environment and Society Program at Chatham House think tank in London.
“Toxic chemicals are needed to separate minerals from rocks, which can be highly contaminated and can lead to further processing,” Schroeder said. In addition, rare earth elements are often found alongside radioactive uranium.
Besides the unforgiving climate that covers much of Greenland under layers of ice and freezes the northern fjords for most of the year, the rare earths found there tend to be covered by a complex type of rock called eudialyte, and no one has ever developed a profitable process for extracting rare earths from this type of rock. Elsewhere, these elements are commonly found in various rock formations called carbonatites, and there are proven ways to deal with this.
“If we are in a race for resources — for critical minerals — we should focus on resources that are easy to get to market,” said David Abraham, a rare earths expert who has followed the industry for decades and authored the book “Power Elements.”
This week, Critical Metals’ share price more than doubled after it said it plans to build a pilot plant in Greenland this year. But this company and more than a dozen others exploring deposits on the island are still a long way from actually building a mine and will still need to raise at least hundreds of millions of dollars.
Even the most promising projects can struggle to make a profit, especially when China resorts to dumping additional materials on the market to lower prices and drive competitors out of business, as it has done many times in the past. Currently, the most important minerals must be processed in China.
The United States is striving to expand the supply of rare earth elements outside China during the period Postponement for one year Among the tougher restrictions Trump said Xi Jinping agreed to In October. A number of companies around the world already produce rare earths or magnets, and can deliver them more quickly than anything else in Greenland, which Trump has threatened to shut down. Seizing military power If Denmark does not agree to sell it.
“Everyone was running to get to this end point,” said Ian Lange, a professor of economics who focuses on rare earths at the Colorado School of Mines. “If you go to Greenland, you go back to the beginning.”
Many in the industry also believe America should focus on helping proven companies rather than trying to build new rare earth mines in Greenland. Ukraine, Africa Or anywhere else. There are a number of other mining projects in the United States and Friendly countries like Australia They are further along and in much more accessible locations.
The US government has invested directly in the company that operates the only rare earth mine in the United States. MP materialsa lithium miner and company that recycles batteries and other products with rare earth elements.
These investments should do more to reduce Chinese influence, but it’s hard to change the calculus quickly when more than 90% of the world’s rare earths come from China, said Scott Dunn, chief executive of magnetics firm Noveon.
“There are very few people who can rely on a track record of delivering anything in each of these cases, and obviously that should be where we start, especially in my view if you’re the U.S. government,” said Dunn, whose company already produces more than 2,000 metric tons of magnets each year at a factory in Texas from items it sources outside of China.
___
Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska, and Neshadham from Madrid.