A plane reportedly carrying U.S. businessman Donald Trump Jr. lands in Nuuk, Greenland, January 7, 2025.
Emil Stach | Afp | Getty Images
US President-elect Donald Trump's drive to acquire Greenland may well be motivated by critical minerals, with mining executives and researchers calling the island's vast resource potential a “tremendous opportunity”.
Trump's years-long attempt to seize control of the world's largest island has gained momentum in recent weeks.
Before his inauguration on January 20, Trump said that US ownership of the autonomous Danish territory was an “absolute necessity” for purposes of “national security and freedom around the world.”
Trump has since escalated those comments and has refused to rule out using military or economic force to make Greenland part of the US
Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede has told Trump that the Arctic island is “not for sale” and urged the international community to respect the territory's independence aspirations. In addition to Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Egede also recently called for talks with Trump to resolve the situation.
When asked about Trump's obsession with making Greenland part of the United States, the president-elect's new national security adviser, Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida, was clear.
“This is about critical minerals. This is about natural resources,” Waltz said in a Jan. 9 interview with Fox News.
“This is about reintroducing America to the Western Hemisphere,” Waltz said. “You can call it Monroe Doctrine 2.0, but it's all part of the 'America First' agenda.”
Greenland is becoming more and more relevant; It will become more and more of a focus because of the climate change discussion, the critical metals discussion, and the geopolitical discussion.
Roderick McIllree
Managing Director of 80 Mile
Critical minerals refer to a subset of materials considered essential to the energy transition. These minerals that are typically at high risk of supply chain disruption include metals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements.
Critical minerals and rare earth elements are important components in emerging green technologies such as wind turbines and electric vehicles, energy storage technologies, and national security applications.
China is the undisputed leader in the critical minerals supply chain, accounting for approximately 60% of global production of rare earth minerals and materials. U.S. officials have previously warned that this poses a strategic challenge given the transition to low-carbon energy sources.
In this aerial photo, melting icebergs crowd the Ilulissat Icefjord on July 16, 2024, near Ilulissat, Greenland.
Sean Gallup | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Jakob Kløve Keiding, senior advisor at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), said a study of Greenland's resource potential in 2023 evaluated a total of 38 raw materials on the island, the vast majority of which have relatively high or moderate potential .
These materials include the rare earth metals graphite, niobium, platinum group metals, molybdenum, tantalum and titanium.
“Overall, we can say that there is great potential for critical raw materials [in Greenland]Keiding told CNBC by phone.
“Many of these are of great importance for the EU economy, and of course this is not just limited to Europe. Many of them are also on the Americans’ list.” [critical raw materials]” he added.
“Greenland is not for sale”
Aaja Chemnitz, a Greenlandic lawmaker from the Inuit Ataqatigiit party in the Danish parliament, called Trump's comments on Greenland “disrespectful” and reiterated the prime minister's message by saying the territory is not for sale.
“I'm not worried. I think some people in Greenland are quite worried, but I think it's important for us to say that Greenland is not for sale and has never been for sale.” [and] will never be for sale,” Chemnitz told CNBC’s Silvia Amaro on Monday.
Chemnitz said Greenlandic lawmakers must have “clear and very specific goals for cooperation with the US.”
In the future, for example, closer ties between Greenland and the US could help facilitate investment in the island's mining industry, she added.
“If we look at the extraction of rare earths, for example. This is something we have been willing to do for a very long time. We are looking for American investors, [but] “We didn’t find them and are therefore very welcome,” said Chemnitz.
The U.S. military maintains a permanent presence in northwest Greenland at Pituffik Space Base, formerly known as Thule Air Base.
“A race for what’s left”
Roderick McIllree, managing director of British mining company 80 Mile, said he has been working in Greenland for just over 20 years on projects ranging from resource discovery to feasibility.
“I think what we're seeing in Greenland is really a race for what's left,” McIllree told CNBC via video call.
“Many independent government studies suggest that Greenland and its natural shelf boundaries may contain 20 to 25% of the last remaining mineable resources on the planet. If this is true, this is a huge opportunity for Greenland.”
The old colonial port of Nuuk, Greenland, is pictured on August 30, 2024. Greenland, an icy land whose rugged landscapes are beguiling, wants to attract more tourists, a paradox for an area particularly vulnerable to global warming and whose geographical isolation means that many people have to take planes to get there.
James Brooks | Afp | Getty Images
80 Mile is currently actively developing three projects in Greenland, including a major oil concession on the island's east coast, a titanium project near Pituffik in the northwest and its Disko-Nuussuaq project in the southwest.
McIllree highlighted the resource potential in the region, saying the company's Disko project could be one of the largest deposits of nickel and copper on the planet.
“Greenland is becoming more and more relevant; it will become more and more of a focus because of the climate change discussion, the critical metals discussion and the geopolitical discussion. And its proximity to the U.S. really makes it a…” “natural jurisdiction for significant U.S. investment,” McIllree said.
“If Greenland plays its cards right, it will lead to its independence,” he added.
“Significant strategic interest”
In March last year, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen traveled to Nuuk in Greenland to inaugurate an EU office in the island's capital.
The move came several months before Donald Trump Jr.'s recent trip to the same city and was intended to strengthen Europe's presence in the area as well as the wider Arctic region.
At the time, Von der Leyen announced two cooperation agreements worth a total of nearly 94 million euros ($95.9 million), which she said would be used to invest in clean energy, key raw materials and skills in Greenland.
(LR) European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Greenland Prime Minister Mute B Egede and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen signed an agreement on March 15 to open the European Commission's new office in Nuuk, Greenland.
Leiff Josefsen | Afp | Getty Images
“I'm a geologist by training and I know that Greenland is very well endowed with natural resources,” Paul Lusty, head of battery raw materials research at Fastmarkets, told CNBC via video call.
“There is a lot of interest in rare earths in Greenland, for example, and they can clearly be of significant strategic interest to the United States,” Lusty said.
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