The climate crisis is melting Greenland down at an astonishing rate, which is creating an opportunity for investors and mining companies who are searching for a trove of critical minerals capable of powering the green energy economy.
A group of billionaires, including Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates, is betting that below the surface of Greenland’s Disko Island and Nuussuaq Peninsula there are enough critical minerals to power hundreds of millions of electric vehicles.
“We are looking for a deposit that will be the first or second largest most significant nickel and cobalt deposit in the world,” said Kurt House, CEO of Kobold Metals.
Crews are taking soil samples, flying drones and helicopters with transmitters to measure the electromagnetic field of the subsurface and chart the layers of rock below. They are also using artificial intelligence to analyze the data to pinpoint exactly where to drill as early as next summer.
“It is a concern to witness the consequences and impacts from the climate changes in Greenland,” said Bluejay Mining CEO Bo Møller Stensgaard. “But, generally speaking, climate changes overall have made exploration and mining in Greenland easier and more accessible.”
Stensgaard said that because climate change is making ice-free periods in the sea longer, teams are able to ship in heavy machinery and ship out metals to the global market more easily.
Greenland could also be a hotspot for coal, copper, gold, rare-earth elements and zinc, according to the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/08/world/greenland-melting-mineral-mining-climate/index.html