Happy New Year 2024 (and sorry for the forum being offline some hours) /DM
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.”
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%.
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.)
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.
