US and European mining companies need to hurry up and invest in Greenland otherwise it will have to look elsewhere for help exploiting its minerals, including from China, a minister for the vast Arctic territory has warned.
“We want to develop our business sector and diversify it, and that requires investments from outside,’’ Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister for business and mineral resources, told the Financial Times.
When asked about turning to China, she replied: ‘‘We do want to partner up with European and American partners. But if they don’t show up I think we need to look elsewhere.”
The comments demonstrate Greenland’s desire to get western help to expand its economy in mining and tourism, with United Airlines due to start flying from New York to the capital Nuuk from next month.
Greenland is home to large but fairly inaccessible deposits of minerals including gold and copper, and is located in a geopolitically crucial area in the Arctic.
Nathanielsen told the FT that she found Trump’s threats to take control of Greenland “disrespectful and distasteful”. Her comments underscore the increasing anger felt by Greenlanders at Trump’s aggressive approach to the island of 57,000 people.
She said that despite Trump’s rhetoric, there was little interest from China in mining deals — right now there are only two Chinese mining companies in Greenland, but both are minority shareholders in inactive projects. She speculated that Chinese investors might be holding back because they don’t want “to provoke anything”.
Her comments come as the country hailed the awarding of its first licence under a new mining code to a Danish-French group to extract anorthosite, a mineral used in the fibreglass industry.
The €150mn mining project in Western Greenland aims to start construction as soon as next year, according to Claus Stoltenborg, chief executive of Greenland Anorthosite Mining.
The company’s backers include a Greenlandic state pension fund, Danish bank Arbejdernes Landsbank, and Jean Boulle, a French mining group.
Nathanielsen said the new four-party coalition government in Nuuk was ‘‘first and foremost committed to creating development for Greenland and Greenlanders” and would prefer to work with “allies and like-minded partners”.
Sure, I support Greenlandic independence. But this will be the, what, twelfth time they tried to kickstart their domestic economy by inviting foreign mining companies.
Americans and Europeans (And Chinese, and Canadian and Australian too i think) HAVE invested in exploitation of the natural wealth of Greenland, and it isn’t economically viable at scale.
At this point the Greenlandic mining sector should genuinely be treated as either delusional or electoral guff to make it seem like an economic transition is just around the corner. And it always has to be pushed and pushed so the rhetoric and policies get sillier and sillier. Sure why not advertise a combined mining technical exam and high school diploma to children, never mind that there’s like 20 mining jobs available.Sure. Make a deal with China if it gives you even an infantesimal benefit, Inuits owe Danes less than nothing. But be real about the mining shit. China is holding back because it’s not a good business not out of fear of offending the fucking Danes.
I can’t believe Greenland is now harboring communist terrorists and needs to be sanctioned for freedom.
Assholes. Just turn to china.
Don’t expect any of these European nations to truly have a spine and not be lapdogs till the end.
Greenland is a bit more nuanced. It’s not an independent nation, it’s a territory of Denmark. It’s majority Inuit but historically white run, but now increasingly Inuit governed at a local level.
These guys need a independence, a couple of nukes, and to be part of belt and road.
I thought that said “turn into China” which reminded me of kids on r/cth saying they’d go “full tankie”.
Turn into China, cowards
.anihC ma I won dnA .ablE was I ,I saw elbA
bad bit
tib dab
Gunna’ go watch Barbarian and fall asleep and be sad ‘cause my bit sucked. It was gunna’ have a whole arc where I need to speak in palindrome sentences to break free and stuff. Sounded way better in my head, I guess.
In your defense- the second one got a chuckle from me
i think that would be way more effort than anyone would be willing to engage with
Link doesn’t work for me. Try this https://archive.is/7KQ9P
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