President Donald Trump on Wednesday mentioned he reached a framework for a deal with NATO over the long run of Greenland that can embody rights to rare-earth minerals.
“They’re going to be involved in mineral rights, and so are we,” Trump mentioned about NATO and the United States in an interview with CNBC after the preliminary announcement on Truth Social.
He didn’t specify any preliminary phrases. But Greenland’s untapped mineral wealth has helped land the island on the prime of Trump’s empire-building want listing.
Trump officials view Greenland’s underground riches as a technique to loosen China’s stranglehold over the rare-earth metals that are vital for every thing from fighter jets and lasers to electrical automobiles and MRI scanners.
Trump has downplayed Greenland’s pure assets, together with in his speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday, when he mentioned buying rare-earth minerals wasn’t the rationale America wanted the territory.
“Everyone talks about the minerals. There’s so many,” Trump mentioned. “There’s no such thing as rare earth. There’s rare processing. But there’s so much rare earth. And to get to this rare earth, you got to go through hundreds of feet of ice. That’s not the reason we need it. We need it for strategic national security and international security.”
But hours later, Trump mentioned the deal for Greenland included two components: his “Golden Dome” missile protection idea and minerals. That tracks with what his former nationwide safety adviser Mike Waltz instructed Fox News in 2024, when Waltz mentioned that the administration’s concentrate on Greenland was “about critical minerals” and “natural resources.”
The actuality is that Denmark’s possession of Greenland just isn’t what’s stopping the United States from tapping the island’s treasure trove. It’s the punishing Arctic environment.
Researchers say it will be extremely difficult and expensive to extract Greenland’s minerals as a result of many of the island’s mineral deposits are positioned in distant areas above the Arctic Circle, the place there’s a mile-thick polar ice sheet and darkness reigns a lot of the yr.
Not solely that, however Greenland, a self-ruling territory of Denmark, lacks the infrastructure and manpower required to make this mining dream a actuality.
“The idea of turning Greenland into America’s rare-earth factory is science fiction. It’s just completely bonkers,” mentioned Malte Humpert, founder and senior fellow at The Arctic Institute. “You might as well mine on the moon. In some respects, it’s worse than the moon.”
Despite its title, approximately 80% of Greenland is roofed with ice. And mineral extraction — or absolutely anything — within the Arctic will be 5 to 10 instances dearer than doing it elsewhere on the planet.
Trump’s curiosity in Greenland just isn’t new — nor is he the first US president to covet the island.
For years, if not many years, officers in Greenland have courted international direct funding. People in Greenland say they already are open to enterprise alternatives with none belligerence.
Getting US companies to take an opportunity on Greenland could also be a fantasy, specialists say.
“If there was a ‘pot of gold’ waiting at the end of the rainbow in Greenland, private businesses would have gone there already,” mentioned Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, nonresident senior fellow on the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
However, Funk Kirkegaard, who beforehand labored with the Danish Ministry of Defense, mentioned it’s simply “very difficult” to make a enterprise case for the very massive upfront funding that may be required.
It’s attainable Trump tries to offer monetary incentives and ensures to entice US corporations to make these huge investments, just like the ensures that Big Oil is looking for to drill aggressively in Venezuela.
“If given enough taxpayer dollars, private business would be willing to do almost anything,” Funk Kirkegaard mentioned. “But is that a good foundation on which to purchase a territory? The answer is no in Greenland, just as it’s no in Venezuela.”
The local weather disaster has triggered melting ice and quickly rising temperatures within the Arctic, main some to hope for brand spanking new financial alternatives.
However, it’s too early to say this shall be sufficient of a game-changer to beat the environmental challenges of mining in Greenland. While ice soften has opened up some delivery routes, it has additionally made the bottom much less secure to drill and raises the danger of landslides.
“Climate change doesn’t mean it’s easy. This is not the Mediterranean or your bathtub. There’s just less ice freeze,” mentioned Humpert of The Arctic Institute.
Relatedly, Greenland’s stringent environmental rules would add expense and issue to widespread mining.
Of course, these rules replicate the native inhabitants’s want to maintain the setting pristine. If the Trump administration someway made these rules disappear, it’d show deeply unpopular.
“You could end up having a hostile local political situation,” Funk Kirkegaard mentioned.
Adam Lajeunesse, chair in Canadian and Arctic coverage at St. Francis Xavier University, mentioned Trump’s “bizarre rhetoric” about taking on Greenland dangers undermining the financial and strategic goals US officers by harming the connection with Greenland and Denmark.
“You could see the United States no longer viewed as a friend and partner but as a bully that should be resisted,” he mentioned.
To some extent, this will likely already be taking place.
Christian Keldsen, managing director of the Greenland Business Association, cautions US officers threat damaging the connection with the native inhabitants.
“At the moment, everything American is a red flag,” he mentioned. “Everyone is wondering, ‘Am I supporting someone taking over my country?’”