Toxic ultimatum Fight over rare minerals mine turns island into legal battleground

Greenland is being sued by a mining company over its decision to end uranium mining. It could be forced to restart – or pay $11bn

Patrick Greenfield, Phoebe Weston

From the iceberg-filled bay, the mountains above the town of Narsaq, in south-west Greenland, appear unremarkable. Brightly coloured homes are scattered around the shoreline below, home to a community of just over 1,300 people. Were it not for a mining outhouse on the edge of town, there would be little indication of the potential riches in the rock. The range is home to one of the largest undeveloped deposits of rareearth minerals and uranium in the world: the Kvanefjeld site, or Kuannersuit in Greenlandic. It contains high concentrations of metals used to manufacture permanent magnets in wind turbines and electric cars. Every major power in the world is scrambling to get access to these minerals for carbon-free energy and transport. A proposed open-pit mine would be worth about $7.5bn if…

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Guardian Weekly (Digital) - 1 Issue, 14 March 2025

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