"How China's Belt and Road and an Australian mining company could be the deciding issues in the Greenland election", 7 March 2021

[...] Greenland's government has, in recent years, looked for ways to draw in new investment, to boost economic growth, and improve education, quality of life and job prospects for Greenlanders, most of whom are Inuit.

That has included annual trips to China to promote investment in Greenland, in fisheries, mines and more — and China is interested.

A proposed rare earth mine, which if approved will be the world's second largest, is shaping up as the nation's potential answer. [...]

That's the case for the proposed Kvanefjeld mine, for which Greenland Minerals, an Australian company with a Chinese partner, has been trying for more than a decade to get approval, spending some $83 million on environmental, safety and feasibility studies.

'Risky way' of doing politics

Greenland Minerals' corporate social responsibility manager and geologist Johannes Kyed said studies on the project have been rigorous.

"In my own opinion, this is one of the most comprehensive studies made on a project like this, and [it's] understandable, because there is uranium in the rock," Mr Kyed, who grew up in southern Greenland, said.

But fierce debate among Greenlanders may yet derail the project.

Proponents say profits from the Kvanefjeld mine could speed up Greenland's bid to gain full independence from Denmark rather than its current limited self-rule, by reducing dependence on Denmark's annual subsidy of roughly $800 million.

Opponents say the proposed open-pit mine would deface a pristine and fragile ecosystem in the only part of this mostly ice-covered island, where climate change's warming temperatures allow new farms to provide Greenlanders with lamb, vegetables, strawberries and even honey. [...]

China's government pitches its interest in investing in Greenland as a win-win that will help Greenland diversify its economy, while helping China retain its near-monopoly on the global supply of rare earths.

It's part of what China calls its Polar Silk Road, a plan to increase China's presence in the Arctic, and use the Northern Sea Route that climate change is slowly opening through the Arctic Ocean. [...]

Greenland is of particular interest to China, for its uranium and rare earths, for the substantial oil and gas reserves believed to lie off its shores, for its fish in its territorial waters, and for its strategic position, relatively near the United States. Greenland's west coast is as close to New York City as Sydney is to Perth. [...]