Key details of Greenland's rich but largely untapped mineral resources

The Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers will meet US Vice President JD Vance and ‍Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday after ​President Donald Trump recently stepped up threats to take over Greenland.

The autonomous territory of Denmark could be useful ⁠for the United States because of its strategic location and rich mineral resources. A 2023 survey showed that 25 of 34 minerals deemed "critical raw materials" by the European Commission were found in Greenland.

The extraction of oil and natural gas is banned in Greenland for environmental reasons, while ‌development of its ‌mining sector has been snarled in red tape and opposition from indigenous people.


Below are details of Greenland's main mineral deposits, based on data from its Mineral Resources ‌Authority:

RARE EARTHS

Three of Greenland's biggest deposits are located in the southern province of Gardar.

Companies seeking to develop rare-earth mines are Critical Metals Corp, which bought the Tanbreez deposit, Energy Transition Minerals, whose Kuannersuit project is stalled amid legal disputes, and Neo Performance Materials.

Rare-earth elements are key to permanent magnets used in electric vehicles (EV) and wind turbines.

GRAPHITE

Occurrences of graphite and graphite schist are reported from ​many localities on the island.

GreenRoc has applied for an exploitation license to develop ​the Amitsoq graphite project.

Natural graphite is mostly used in EV batteries and steelmaking.

COPPER

According to the Mineral Resources ‌Authority, most copper deposits ‍have drawn only limited exploration campaigns.

Especially interesting are the underexplored areas in the northeast and ‍centre-east of Greenland, it said.

London-listed 80 Mile is seeking to develop the Disko-Nuussuaq ‌deposit, which has copper, nickel, platinum and cobalt.

NICKEL

Traces of nickel accumulations are numerous, according to the Mineral Resources Authority.

Major miner Anglo American was granted an exploration licence in western Greenland in 2019 and has been looking for nickel deposits, among others.

ZINC

Zinc is mostly found in the north in a geologic formation that stretches more than 2,500 km (1,550 miles).

Companies have sought to develop the Citronen Fjord zinc and lead project, which had been billed as one of the world's largest undeveloped zinc resources.

GOLD

The most prospective areas for gold potential are situated around the Sermiligaarsuk fjord ‍in the country's south.

Amaroq Minerals launched a gold mine last year in Mt Nalunaq in the Kujalleq Municipality.

DIAMONDS

While most small diamonds and the largest stones are found in the island's west, their ‍presence in other ⁠regions may also be significant.

IRON ORE

Deposits ⁠are located at Isua in southern West Greenland, at Itilliarsuk in central West Greenland, and in North West Greenland along the Lauge Koch Kyst.

TITANIUM-VANADIUM

Known deposits of titanium and vanadium are in the southwest, the east and south.

Titanium is used for commercial, medical and industrial purposes, while vanadium is mainly used to produce specialty steel alloys. The most important industrial vanadium compound, vanadium pentoxide, is used as a catalyst for the production of sulfuric acid.

TUNGSTEN

Used for several industrial applications, tungsten is mostly found in the central-east and northeast of the country, with assessed deposits in the south and west.

URANIUM

In 2021, the then-ruling left-wing Inuit Ataqatigiit party banned uranium mining, effectively halting development of the Kuannersuit rare-earths project, which has uranium as a byproduct.