Greenland: IA Wins Plurality, Bodes Ill For Vast Rare Earth Metals Mine

Results from yesterday's Greenlandic general election show that the left-green pro-independence Inuit Ataqatigiit party (IA) has won a plurality of seats in the Inatsisartut (parliament) in a blow to the prospects of a vast uranium and rare earth metals mine being set up on the Danish autonomous territory.

• While Greenland has a population of just 56k (less than a tenth the population of Wyoming, the least-populated US state), it is viewed as a important geopolitical location due to its strategic position and its natural resources. The US Space Force has a base at Thule is seen as a key link in the chain of NATO missile and air base defences stretching across Europe from Greenland in the north to Turkey in the south.
• Its Kuannersuit deposit is believed to contain one of the world's largest deposits of uranium and rare earth metals (crucial for the production of technology products and computer chips). At present most rare earth metals (57% of the total) are mined in China, with an additional 12% in Myanmar.
• With the west, and the US in particular, seeking to decouple from supply chains reliant on China, the sourcing of rare earth metals to support tech production is crucial. There have been hopes for a number of years that the Kuannersuit deposit could help shift reliance away from China (demonstrated clearly in 2017 when then-US President Donald Trump raised the prospect of purchasing Greenland from Denmark).
• With IA having the potential to form a majority coalition with the populist pro-independence Naleraq party, it would seem that any prospective mining at Kuannersuit will be halted by a moratorium on uranium mining, a key manifesto pledge of IA. As such, the west's efforts to decouple from Chinese rare earths production may be thwarted in the medium term.