FILE PHOTO: A man walks as Danish flag flutters next to Hans Egede Statue ahead of a March 11 general election in Nuuk, Greenland, March 9, 2025. REUTERS/Marko Djurica/File Photo
Officials in Greenland and Denmark were hoping that U.S. President Donald Trump would abandon his push for the United States to buy Greenland. Instead, he is doubling down. During a Friday, January 9 press conference with oil executives, Trump threatened, "We are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not. If we don't do it the easy way, we'll do it the hard way."
Trump is describing Greenland's minerals as valuable to the United States' economic and national security interests, but according to CNBC, tech investors aren't necessarily as bullish on the island.
CNBC's Kai Nicol-Schwarz, in an article published on January 12, reports, "Tech investors are sounding out how the U.S. taking Greenland would affect the viability of critical and rare earth minerals mining there, CNBC has learned, as Washington ramps up its pursuit of the Arctic island…. In the past week, Critical Metals Corp, a company with a mining project in development on the Arctic island, has fielded questions from tech investors about how the U.S. acquiring Greenland would impact that asset and its development strategy, CEO Tony Sage told CNBC."
According to Nicol-Schwarz, "interest in critical minerals and rare earth mining" in Greenland "from tech investors" has "picked up in the past year."
But Tracy Hughes, founder and executive director of the Critical Minerals Institute, warns that investors shouldn't view Greenland's resources as a get-rich-quick scheme.
Hughes told CNBC, "Getting rare earths from exploration to the mighty magnet involves five to six distinct stages — and right now, what's in Greenland is still only in the exploration stage. Rare earths in Greenland won't materially move markets in the next decade."
Sage told CNBC that Greenland has minerals that "are essential for defense technologies, robotics, semiconductors and aerospace applications." But Nicol-Schwarz reports, "Others are more skeptical about whether Greenland's critical and rare earth minerals can significantly reduce the West's dependence on China, which produced 70 percent of rare earths in 2024, according to Statista."
Read the full CNBC article at this link.
