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🗞️ Driving the news: Greenland is emerging as a pivotal player in the global race for rare earth elements essential to clean energy and technology, as melting ice reveals mineral-rich land
• Mining companies from Western nations are eyeing its deposits to reduce reliance on China's near-monopoly over the rare earths market
• However, political tensions, environmental concerns, and logistical hurdles complicate Greenland's potential mining boom
🔭 The context: China currently controls 70% of rare earth production and dominates every stage from mining to final product refinement
• Greenland contains 18% of global reserves for critical rare earths like neodymium and dysprosium
• Its new pro-business government is issuing exploration licences, but mining remains difficult due to limited infrastructure and labour
🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Rare earths are vital to renewable energy technologies such as wind turbines and EV batteries
• Mining them could help accelerate the energy transition, but also risks environmental damage, including pollution and black carbon emissions that may worsen ice melt
• Greenland’s fragile Arctic ecosystem and Indigenous communities could face long-term impacts from extractive operations
⏭️ What's next: The West may subsidise mining operations to ensure rare earth supply security, following China's model of state-supported extraction
• Greenland could leverage hydropower to make mining cleaner, but will need to balance economic independence with environmental responsibility
• Strategic partnerships, like the EU-Greenland 2023 agreement, may grow as geopolitical interest intensifies
💬 One quote: "The geology is so exciting, but there are a lot of ‘buts’." – Jørgen T. Hammeken-Holm, Permanent Secretary for Mineral Resources, Greenland Government
📈 One stat: Between 2020 and 2022, the value of rare earths used in the energy transition quadrupled—and is projected to rise tenfold by 2035
See here detailed sustainability performance of companies like Glencore and BHP
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