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C
ast an ultraviolet flashlight on the hills around Narsaq, a
coastal town in southern Greenland, after dusk, and the
rocks light up like embers. With a land mass larger than Mexico
and a population of only about 56,000 people, Greenland is
a small economy, heavily reliant on fishing, agriculture, and
about $500 million of annual subsidies from Denmark, which
has claimed the island as a territory since the early 18th century.
The fluorescence in the hills, however, could change all that.
Greenland’s minerals, metals, gems, and potentially oil are
of particular interest to those who want full independence from
Denmark by 2021, the 300th anniversary of colonization. The
island has won back some rights to self-rule over the years,
most recently in a 2008 referendum that transferred powers
including authority over mineral resources to the Parliament
of Greenland. In 2013 legislators voted to overturn a ban on
uranium mining that Denmark imposed in the late 1980s.
Nevertheless, mineral extraction has proceeded slowly as devel-
opers look for funding and grapple with Greenland’s icy terrain.
Recent events may help accelerate that. The rare-earth ele-
ments—including neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium,
and terbium—have become a focus of the brewing U.S.-China
trade dispute and are found in abundance in the area around
Narsaq. Traditionally used in oil refining or to color and polish
glass, rare earths have become necessary for all kinds of con-
sumer and industrial products: smartphones, cars, solar pan-
els, MRIs, and, crucially, defense technology. An F-35 Lightning
II fighter jet needs about 920 pounds of rare earths, and an SSN-
774 Virginia-class submarine requires 10 times that, according
to a 2013 U.S. Congressional Research Service report.
China accounts for at least 70% of the global supply of rare
earths and has been known to choke off exports to punish polit-
ical foes. When Vice Premier Liu He visited a production facil-
ity in Ganzhou in May, many interpreted it as a warning to the
U.S. that rare earths were fair game in the trade war.
Which brings us to the U.S. president. In August, Donald
Trump said he’d been talking to advisers about taking Greenland
off Denmark’s hands. Although it came as a surprise to many
(Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called the discus-
sion “absurd”), U.S. interest in the country had been intensify-
ing for some time. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced
plans in May for a new diplomatic outpost in Greenland, and
the U.S. Geological Survey has been on the ground in recent
months to assess the region’s potential for rare-earths mines.
The Kvanefjeld Plateau, about 5 miles outside Narsaq, holds
about a billion tons of mineral resources, according to Australia-
listed developer Greenland Minerals Ltd. But to convert any
new discoveries into mining operations, the industry will need
to win local support and overcome concerns about the poten-
tial damage it could do to Greenland’s unspoiled environment.
The new Kvanefjeld project is being built on the bones of
an abandoned exploration shaft, part of a 30-year effort to cre-
ate a uranium industry, which ended with Denmark’s ban. To
mine it again will require extracting more uranium, which has
stoked community concern over the handling of mining waste.
(Promethium, the only really “rare” element among the rare
earths, is produced by the breakdown of uranium.)
Even if the Kvanefjeld mine is brought into production, it
likely won’t help the U.S.: Chinese producer Shenghe Resources
Holding Co. is the developer’s largest shareholder. Samples of minerals containing rare-earth elements found near NarsaqSiblings Kari and Regina Edvartsen, who live in Narsaq