Greenland’s Ataqatigiit Party Wins Election

Pictured is Greenland’s Mamut Mine, thus far avoiding the controversy surrounding Kvanefjeld (Wikimedia Commons).

Greenland’s left-wing Ataqatigiit party won parliamentary elections on April 7 with 37 percent support, effectively ending the development of the contentious Kvanefjeld mine. Ataqatijiit beat out the pro-mining Democratic Socialist party for only the second time in 40 years, highlighting a shift in Greenlanders’ political priorities that could affect the global critical mineral market and the technologies it supports. The decision also has geopolitical implications for countries dependent on mineral imports, such as the U.S. 

By many estimates, demand for critical minerals and rare-earth minerals will double in the next 30 years, due to the growth of low-carbon energy sources and future automated technologies. Greenland’s high mineral concentrations put it in an ideal position to capitalize on this growth, and up until recently, the majority of Parliament was widely supportive of Chinese-owned Greenland Minerals A/S. “This is an important mine. It will create jobs and economic growth,” Liberal Minister Jens Fredrik Neilsen said in an interview earlier this year. 

Mute Egede, Ataqatigiit party leader, was clear about his intentions once sworn in as Greenland’s Prime Minister, saying definitively the mine’s development “won’t happen.” The shift in sentiment is disappointing for Greenland Minerals A/S, which spent 10 years securing permits and announced in December that Kvanefjeld was mere months from being operational. The election outcome also disheartened pro-mining Greenlanders, who see mining expansion as key to delivering Greenland’s full independence from Denmark. Egede provided some reassurance, saying, “It’s not that Greenlanders don’t want mining, just not dirty mining… and that for them it is not worth sacrificing the environment to achieve independence and economic growth.” Many anti-Kvanefjeld advocates argued that uranium would inevitably be unearthed from the mining project, threatening nearby farmland, drinking water supply. 

Kvanefjeld’s shuttering also affects global mineral and energy supply chains, specifically for U.S. and China relations. The U.S. has an underdeveloped mineral extraction industry that currently relies on China for critical minerals. Foreseeing rising tensions with China, U.S. politicians and experts have increasingly viewed entering Greenland’s mining market as essential towards securing mineral independence and weakening Chinese influence in critical mineral and tangential industries. If Ataqatigiitt’s victory leads to a reduction in total mining projects, as some fear it might, U.S. companies will have to look towards other markets or stay in the precarious position of vulnerability against China. 

The extent to which this trade-off stays popular may depend on just how much preventing the mine from opening affects Greenland’s economy. “The challenge for Greenland will be showing the world that it is still open for business and still an attractive mining jurisdiction,” said Dwayne Menezes, head of London-based think-tank Polar Research and Policy Initiative.