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JimD

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Mining in Greenland/Arctic
« on: August 24, 2013, 10:21:35 PM »
Rare earth's
Iron Ore
Gold
Uranium

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Late last year the industry was buzzing with rumours that Greenland could hold enough of these metals to satisfy one-quarter of global demand over the next 50 years.

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London Mining, which has a former British foreign minister, Sir Nicholas Bonsor, on the board, has been at the centre of a row in the country after speculation it could bring in 2,000 Chinese workers to build one of the world's biggest iron ore mines expressly to serve steel mills in Beijing.

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Greenland Minerals and Energy is positioned at the forefront of Greenland’s emerging minerals industry. Since 2007, the Company has been focused on delivering a world-class production center for specialty metals from the Ilimaussaq complex in south Greenland. Kvanefjeld is the first of several large-scale deposits to be delineated, and is widely recognized as one of the world’s largest resources of rare earth elements, as well as containing substantial resources of uranium and zinc. Managed by a first-class technical team, the feasibility studies on Kvanefjeld are now well-advanced, and Greenland Minerals and Energy is firmly placed to become one of the world’s largest and most cost-effective producers of specialty metals. Meanwhile, the search for new world-class mineral projects constantly continues. Welcome to the evolution. Project overall resource inventory: 956 Mt containing 575 Mlbs U3O8,  10.33 Mt TREO,  2.25 Mt zinc TREO includes 0.37 Mt heavy REO,  0.84 Mt yttrium oxide.

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A majority in the Danish parliament signalled their readiness to allow extraction and exports of uranium from Greenland, marking a historical shift in Danish foreign policy after 30 years of opposition to nuclear power.

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Several other Greenlandic politicians and officials have close ties to the mining industry, including with London Mining. Greenland has a revolving door culture where politicians and private mining company executives move from position to position, often leaving their former posts to their wives or family members. And the recurring appearance of corruption has caused worries among Greenland's people. - See more at: http://www.occupy.com/article/greenlands-vote-raise-corporate-taxes-deals-challenge-global-mining-industry#sthash.RHNViqBt.dpuf

http://www.mining.com/china-growing-uneasy-over-greenlands-rare-earth-ambitions-98403/

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324619504579028944070317778.html

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/15/greenland-government-oil-mining-resources

http://www.occupy.com/article/greenlands-vote-raise-corporate-taxes-deals-challenge-global-mining-industry
« Last Edit: August 24, 2013, 10:42:14 PM by JimD »
We do not err because truth is difficult to see. It is visible at a glance. We err because this is more comfortable. Alexander Solzhenitsyn

How is it conceivable that all our technological progress - our very civilization - is like the axe in the hand of the pathological criminal? Albert Einstein

JimD

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Re: Mining in Greenland/Arctic
« Reply #1 on: August 24, 2013, 10:49:59 PM »
Here is a big iron ore mine on the north end of Baffin Island.

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Baffinland Iron Mines holds a Tier 1 reserve, which is a very rare mineral deposit. The mined product will be a direct shipping mix of 75% high-grade lump and 25% fines, it does not require processing or pelletising and will only need crushing and screening before being shipped to customers. Not having to process the ore means that no tailings containment will be required at the mine site, therefore reducing the scale of the operations needed on site.

Current plans are that once the mine is operating they will truck the ore to the coast (62 miles) and eventually build a 93 mile railroad at (1.9 billion $) to the south end of the island.

http://corporate.arcelormittal.com/news-and-media/our-stories/s71-mining-baffinland
We do not err because truth is difficult to see. It is visible at a glance. We err because this is more comfortable. Alexander Solzhenitsyn

How is it conceivable that all our technological progress - our very civilization - is like the axe in the hand of the pathological criminal? Albert Einstein

JimD

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Re: Mining in Greenland/Arctic
« Reply #2 on: August 24, 2013, 11:01:15 PM »
Norilsk Mining Centre, Russian Federation

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The Norilsk mining centre lies in the Russian High Arctic, about 2800km north east of Moscopgw. The world's leading nickel and palladium producer, and a significant supplier of copper, the operations support a community of some 300,000. Direct employment is around 80,000, with plans to halve this within ten years.

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Extremely high levels of sulfur dioxide pollution from smelters at Norilsk and other sites have decimated vegetation for many kilometers around mining operation sites, and caused environmental pollution, including regional smog known as “Arctic haze.”

http://www.mining-technology.com/projects/norilsk/
We do not err because truth is difficult to see. It is visible at a glance. We err because this is more comfortable. Alexander Solzhenitsyn

How is it conceivable that all our technological progress - our very civilization - is like the axe in the hand of the pathological criminal? Albert Einstein

Anne

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Re: Mining in Greenland/Arctic
« Reply #3 on: August 24, 2013, 11:50:49 PM »
Well, I am part of the problem here as I cannot see, absent a very large grant, how the developed world can stand in the way of Greenland and Nunavut developing their natural resources. The exploitation of mineral wealth here is inevitable. All conservationists can do is make elegiac films about vanishing wilderness. It's heartbreaking, but it's not our country and not our call.

Oh, and the grant thing doesn't always work either.

The world is FUBAR.

JimD

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Re: Mining in Greenland/Arctic
« Reply #4 on: August 25, 2013, 04:22:55 PM »
Considering the current stranglehold China has on production of strategic minerals I would expect that North America and the Europeans are pretty much overjoyed at the prospect of a large mine in Greenland that can provide a substantial percentage of world demand.  More security is always appreciated.
We do not err because truth is difficult to see. It is visible at a glance. We err because this is more comfortable. Alexander Solzhenitsyn

How is it conceivable that all our technological progress - our very civilization - is like the axe in the hand of the pathological criminal? Albert Einstein

Anne

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Re: Mining in Greenland/Arctic
« Reply #5 on: August 25, 2013, 05:35:34 PM »
Except that China is going to be pretty heavily involved in financing the new mines.  (I know, I know, I shouldn't link to them but WSJ do have the dope on things financial).
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Western miners own nearly all exploration licenses for Greenland. But amid sagging mineral prices and with capital in short supply, many say they are negotiating shareholding and funding deals in China. "The risk-willing money is in Asia," says Jens-Erik Kirkegaard, Greenland's industry and minerals minister.

Evidence of the mining ambition—and China's importance—is visible four hours by speedboat into Ilulialik Fiord. Here, house-size icebergs crash off a glacier into the ocean, tinting green the deep waters that teem with whales and seals.

On an incline above a bay still frozen in late spring, shipping containers break the vista—the unlikely staging-point for an iron ore mine, and possible Arctic foothold for China.

The shipping containers on the hilltop are the prep-station for a proposed $2.35 billion iron ore mine that Greenlandic officials indicate they will license by autumn. The project is owned by Britain's London Mining but was designed by an international team with prominent roles for Chinese government-run companies.

Mining iron ore above the fiord is a potential budget-buster, starting with plans to dynamite a plaster of ice 550-feet thick. Up to 3,000 Chinese laborers will endure raging winds and subzero temperatures to construct power and processing plants. A pipeline will snake 64 miles down the mountain to a new port. Ships loaded with ore would navigate to China, possibly on an increasingly viable summertime voyage that cuts near the North Pole and reduces Europe-China travel time by 40%.

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Re: Mining in Greenland/Arctic
« Reply #6 on: August 25, 2013, 06:07:21 PM »
Why shouldn't you link to WSJ? If you want to get any sense of how business is responding to AGW, this would be one of the best choices. With a degree in Economics and MBA from the University of Chicago, this is one of my interests. Given that the response of business to AGW will determine our near term (and with AGW feedback lags, our long term) fate we need to focus on this closely.

Anne

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Re: Mining in Greenland/Arctic
« Reply #7 on: August 25, 2013, 06:59:55 PM »
Sorry about that, SH. It was a throwaway comment alluding to their lamentable history of dealing with the subject of climate change. (Sometimes levity gets the better of me as I try to beat away despair.)

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Re: Mining in Greenland/Arctic
« Reply #8 on: August 25, 2013, 07:07:45 PM »
Sorry about that, SH. It was a throwaway comment alluding to their lamentable history of dealing with the subject of climate change. (Sometimes levity gets the better of me as I try to beat away despair.)

Oooops....my apology. I misunderstood.  :-[

The business community is absolutely on board with the fact of global warming and its effects although they may be underestimating how damaging they will be. As always, business will seek to exploit, for profit, any change in their external environment. They do this when new competitors appear or existing ones show vulnerability and they will respond, in kind, to the effects of AGW. The response will be to exploit these changes, not eliminate them.

JimD

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Re: Mining in Greenland/Arctic
« Reply #9 on: August 25, 2013, 07:19:08 PM »
Anne

The reason I phrased the comment that way were my unspoken thoughts on how the structure of commercial/security arrangements can change over time.

I expect that a few decades from now the global reach of the large powers will be in severe decline.  Control over key mining concerns in places like Greenland and Canada could easily change hands.  Whether that change came via force (i.e. military pressure) or some kind of exchange where the US or Canada gave up an interest on the far side of the globe for control/influence over a concern on or near their countries areas of control.  Typical colonial types of interactions.

Those kinds of thoughts.
We do not err because truth is difficult to see. It is visible at a glance. We err because this is more comfortable. Alexander Solzhenitsyn

How is it conceivable that all our technological progress - our very civilization - is like the axe in the hand of the pathological criminal? Albert Einstein

JimD

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Re: Mining in Greenland/Arctic
« Reply #10 on: January 13, 2014, 05:13:23 PM »
Greenland and Denmark to agree on uranium in 2014: Danish PM

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An agreement between Greenland and Denmark governing uranium extraction in the Arctic territory will be in place by the end of the year, the Danish prime minister said on Wednesday....

...The meeting focused on the thorny issue of how much say Copenhagen should have in a future uranium mining sector in Greenland, which Hammond believes could become one of the world's top exporters of the substance.

Under Greenland's home rule, former colonial power Denmark maintains control over foreign affairs and defence policy.

An agreement between Copenhagen and Nuuk governing uranium mining was needed because "it's quite clear that Denmark has obligations with regards to security and defence policy," Thorning-Schmidt said.

"A cooperation agreement is essential to actually beginning" mining, she added.

Greenland hopes its vast mineral wealth will wean it off Danish subsidies, which currently account for about half of its economy.

To that end, in October the country's parliament revoked a ban that had existed since 1988 on exploiting uranium.

http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Greenland_and_Denmark_to_agree_on_uranium_in_2014_Danish_PM_999.html
We do not err because truth is difficult to see. It is visible at a glance. We err because this is more comfortable. Alexander Solzhenitsyn

How is it conceivable that all our technological progress - our very civilization - is like the axe in the hand of the pathological criminal? Albert Einstein