Prof. Krzysztof Szamałek, director of the Polish Geological Institute in Warsaw, said Greenland’s mineral potential has drawn growing attention as strategic competition intensifies around the Arctic.
Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, and it has been in the international spotlight in recent weeks amid renewed statements by US President Donald Trump arguing the island is important for US security.
A recent US estimate put the theoretical value of Greenland’s resource base at USD 4.4 trillion, including oil at about USD 1.4 trillion and rare earth metals at about USD 1.5 trillion, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Szamałek said the island’s resources matter because critical raw materials are minerals essential to modern industry, where supply disruptions could seriously limit production.
He said the European Union identified 34 such materials two years ago, including so-called rare earth elements, which are needed for many advanced technologies.
Szamałek said much of what is known about Greenland’s resources is based on early assessments that confirm the presence of mineral-bearing formations, but not precise quantities.
He said further research, drilling, and calculations would be needed, and suggested the island’s interior, beneath the ice, could eventually expand knowledge of its geology.
He listed potential Greenland deposits that include graphite, heavy and light elements such as molybdenum, niobium, tantalum, platinum group elements, precious metals used in sectors such as electronics and electrical engineering, as well as strontium, titanium, hafnium and zirconium.
He stressed these are “estimated, not fully documented” deposits, and said “the road to developing them is still long.”
Szamałek said the deposits identified so far are mainly in studied offshore areas and along the coast.
He noted that about 80 percent of Greenland is covered by an ice sheet.
“Of these 34 critical raw materials, 25 occur in Greenland,” he said, adding by comparison that Poland has “four or five,” depending on definitions, in terms of potential deposits that could yield such materials.
He said China currently dominates production of many rare earth elements, and that EU countries and other users want supplies from additional producers.
At the same time, he argued the push to develop Greenland’s minerals is driven more by a desire to reduce China’s market power than by a global shortage.
“No one in the world has done extraction from beneath an ice sheet," he said, describing it as technologically untested and unnecessary for now.
(rt/gs)
Source: naukawpolsce.pl