Subtitles (31)
0:00Yes, Greenland has a trove of mineral resources,
0:02and some people claim their
interest in it louder than others.
0:07But could critical minerals help with Greenland's
economy? The territory is currently grappling with
0:12low growth, and the National Bank of Denmark even
sites major challenges in its public finances.
0:18Greenland's economy has long been
reliant on two major sectors: fishing,
0:22which accounts for almost all of the island's
exports, and public administration and services,
0:27which cover health and education. You'll notice
that mining is the smallest segment on the chart.
0:32You only have to look at fishing and see that
any kind of changes to marine ecosystems as
0:37a result of climate change could then have a
knock-on effect to its economic success story.
0:42A study by the American Action
Forum estimates that the value of
0:45Greenland's known and realistically extractable
mineral resources could reach $186 billion.
0:51Every time there's some
activity in the mineral sector,
0:54they will charter the local boat, the local shop,
0:57and so on. So right now the local communities
are really feeling the positive effect of that.
1:01We don't mind if you find anything as long as you
1:04keep looking because that's where
the money is for us right now.
1:06But there are three major problems
with this. First, the infrastructure.
1:10There are no roads going across Greenland.
You have to build everything from scratch.
1:17You need to do everything on your own. We started
1:19with a gold mine. The project that has
costed us in total about $200 million.
1:23It is a chicken and egg situation. The mines can't
1:26get going until the processing is there
and the processors won't put the money
1:30in until the mines are going. So this
is where government needs to step in.
1:34The third issue, finding skilled workers.
1:37We are still very much dependent
on a foreign workforce and about
1:4012 to 13% of the workforce here are foreigners.
1:44In early 2026, Greenland's population
stood at just over 55,500 inhabitants.
1:50But government data projections show
a steep decline over the next 20 years
1:54with the territory expected to lose
around 20% of its people by 2050.
