Greenland mineral exploration history

Abstract

Greenland has a long mining and mineral exploration history and offers interesting possibilities for investors. There is still optimism in the mineral business, but successful examples are surprisingly few in the new millennium. Based on numerous new tables compiling information on companies, periods, targets, licenses, and costs, this paper gives a description of the past and present activities, the exploration companies involved, their main targets, their limited financial power, and their continued need for and search of investors and large industrial partners. An analysis of the key drivers at different levels is presented: analogues with Canada and elsewhere, dedicated prospectors looking for profit, specific strategic projects, commodity prices, new research results, co-financing, strategies, and regulations by authorities in Greenland and Denmark. Changes in political agenda in Greenland, Denmark, and internationally have had a strong influence on exploration activities in Greenland compared to other countries with an exploration industry, in some cases creating good incentives for investors, in other cases being showstoppers for future exploration and mining. This paper provides, for the first time ever, a summary of the total costs for mineral exploration in Greenland and the total revenue for the governments, and compares these numbers with the public investments in research, data acquisition, and direct investments in national companies.