According to Mineweb, Greenland Minerals and Metals (a company) has finished an initial report on the Kvanefjeld site on Greenland’s southwest tip. Kvanefjeld could potentially become a major rare earth mine and would also produce uranium.
Greenland noted that Kvanefjeld’s Joint Ore Reserve Committee (Jorc)-compliant resource estimate, containing 4,79-million tons of rare earth oxides (REO) and 0,12-million tons of uranium oxide, was recognised as the world’s largest REO resource by Jorc standards.
The prefeasibility study provided a net present value (NPV) of $2,18-billion and free cash flow of $8,9-billion over the life of the project using a processing rate of 10,8-million tons a year, a conventional openpit mining system, and a waste to ore strip ratio of 0,8:1.
The study also estimated that construction would start in 2013 with production commencing in 2015. (Creamer Media Reporter)
Rare earths are required for many green technologies; most of the current mines are located in China, which has been making noises about limiting their trade and which has serious problems with environmental oversight at many locations. Such a find could have a significant impact on China’s ability to control the market and hence the global development of green technology. Greenland is also expected to have sizable natural gas and oil reserves offshore.
This is of course, the rosiest industry picture. Gigantic environmental, technological and transportation hurdles loom. Social and environmental impacts studies have not been done yet, and it is sure that Greenlanders, who have voiced concern, even opposition, to such extraction industries in the past will surely demand strong protections. According to the Economist last year,
An official of the island’s Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum has specified that any companies extracting hydrocarbons in the neighbourhood must also develop and use carbon-storage technology. This would involve reinjecting carbon dioxide either deep underground or under the sea, in order to compensate the amount of heat-trapping gas that is being released into the atmosphere.
Since Greenland is hardly a forested island, it would be hard to use trees as a carbon sink.
Of all the extraction industries, mining leaves the largest, longest-lasting footprint and the sort of mining proposed at Kvanefjeld will be particularly destructive. Will it still be a green project if it despoils a currently pristine wilderness?
