Minerals and location: Why Trump is interested in Greenland

COPENHAGEN - Greenland, which President Donald Trump wants to annex on grounds of US national and international security, is a self-governing Danish territory in the Arctic covered in ice, with untapped mineral resources and geostrategic importance.

"We have to have it," Trump reiterated on Wednesday, ahead of Vice President JD Vance's visit on Friday to the US Pituffik Space Base on Greenland's northwestern coast.

Closer to New York

Greenland is an autonomous territory but remains dependent on Copenhagen for law enforcement, monetary policy, foreign affairs, defence and security policy.

However, with its capital closer to New York than Copenhagen, Greenland is in the United States' "zone of interest", historian Astrid Andersen, of the Danish Institute of International Studies, told AFP.

"During the war, while Denmark was occupied by Germany, the US took over Greenland. In a sense they have never left," she explained.

The United States has its active military base there, used during the Cold War as a warning post for possible attacks from the Soviet Union and still an essential part of the United States' missile defence infrastructure.

Greenland's location puts it on the shortest route for missiles between Russia and the United States.

Washington has "legitimate complaints about the lack of surveillance of the airspace and submarine areas east of Greenland," said Ulrik Pram Gad, also of the Danish Institute of International Studies.

Also its strategic position for when new shipping lanes are freed up due to melting ice adds importance, but Pram Gad believes Trump is using "exaggerated terms".

Trump in 2019, during his first term in office, floated the idea of a US purchase of Greenland, but that was rebuffed.

Potential mining sector

Since 2009, Greenlanders have been in charge of deciding how their natural resources are used.

Access to Greenland's mineral resources is considered crucial by the United States, which signed a memorandum on cooperation in the sector in 2019.

The EU followed suit four years later with its own agreement.

Greenland's soil is well-explored, which has enabled a detailed map of resources to be drawn up.

Pituffik Space Base, formerly Thule Air Base, with the domes of the Thule Tracking Station, is pictured in northern Greenland.

The EU has identified 25 of the 34 minerals on its official list of critical raw materials in Greenland, including rare earths.

"As the demand for minerals is rising, there is a need to go and look for untapped resources," said Ditte Brasso Sorensen, an analyst at Think Tank Europa.

"Actors are more and more aware they need to diversify their sources, especially when it comes to the dependence to China on rare earth elements."

Adding to this is the fear that China will get its hands on the mineral resources, she explained.

Yet the mining sector in Greenland is currently largely non-existent.

There are only two mines on the island -- one for rubies, which is looking for new investors, and the other for anorthosite, a rock containing titanium.

Financially dependent

Economically, the territory, which is seeking to emancipate itself from Denmark, depends on annual subsidies from Copenhagen -- which account for a fifth of its GDP -- and on fishing.

Hopes are in part pinned on the opening of an international airport in Nuuk in November to help develop tourism in the Arctic region.

Infrastructure is also a key issue for the development of the mining industry.

"When it comes to extractive industries, Trump is putting Greenland on the mining map in discourse but it's hard to say how it could evolve as there is a lack of investors," noted Lill Rastad Bjorst, an associate professor at Aalborg University specialising in Greenland.

Sorensen also stressed the inherent difficulties of such endeavours in Greenland, with its "very harsh weather conditions, a protected environment and lots of costs with the need to develop the physical and digital infrastructure".

Public opposition to uranium mining in southern Greenland prompted legislation banning the extraction of radioactive products.

Another potential resource to be exploited is oil but it is currently at a standstill.

"The government of Greenland has paused their commitment to oil exploration in Greenland and sees a great potential in hydropower," Rastad Bjorst said.