Nok – After US President Donald Trump announced his intention to take control of Greenland, on the pretext of ensuring “economic security”, the North Arctic Island rushed to confirm that it is not for sale in light of the increasing interest in its rare and unused metal resources in most of them.
In a special interview for Al -Jazeera Net with the Minister of Economy and Natural Resources, Naya Nathanilsen, from the Ministry’s headquarters in the capital, Nok, she emphasized the openness of the Greenndi market to foreign partnerships in the field of mining.
Nathanilsen has been the Minister of Economy, Trade and Natural Resources in Greenland since 2021, a member of Parliament since 2009, and a member of the Socialist Party Inuet Atakatete.
An ideological speech
Commenting on Trump’s repeated threats to purchase the former Danish colony, the minister does not believe that there is an imminent threat to Greenland’s military occupation, considering that Trump’s speech on commercial wars and the approach he takes in dealing with the war file in Ukraine, Panama and Gaza Strip is interconnected in an ideological way, and damage to prosperity throughout the world.
“I was trying to understand what is going on around this matter during the past two months and whether this is related to national security, but since the increase in investments in the mineral sector and the military presence is possible in Greenland, I think the main reason remains most likely the ideology that the United States wants to impose on the world.”
The minister’s statements come after Prime Minister Motty Egidy said that Greenland started a dialogue with Washington and is seeking to cooperate with the Trump administration, as he stressed that his country is open to closer relations with the United States, and that “its doors are open with regard to mining.”
In a related context, both officials of the Greenland government did not announce that the Arctic Island will accept US control of the self -rule region, especially after the US President raised the alarm when he refused to exclude the military intervention to control Greenland.
“We are an independent people and a small democracy, and the number of our population is only 56 thousand people, but we have our government and parliament, and it is very important for us to declare it. All we have is a voice, so we use it wherever we can, and we talk to everyone we can to express to the outside world that we do not want to become Americans,” Nathanelsen said.
The minister considered that this current division is “absolutely unnecessary because we are allies of the United States and we were friends, but this continuous speech about Greenland and the seizure of minerals is very abusive, which indicates the extent of our friendship at the present time.”
Mining challenges
When asked whether Trump’s return to the White House will be a strong blow to global climate work, the minister replied that “many countries are taking measures regardless of what America is doing, and there are also American states that realize the climate crisis well like California, but the United States’ decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement was a painful blow to all of us.”
Regarding the challenges of mining on the major island in the world, Nathanilsen revealed that the value of mining lies in being an excellent supplement to tourism after the fish industry, which is the most important sector. Although it takes time to touch a real impact at the national level, “we hope that mining will become a more important factor in our economy,” she said.
The isolated town of Narsak is considered to be isolated between the harassment and the ice mountains in southern Greenland, with a population of about 1300 people, very close to the sixth largest uranium deposits and the second largest rare land deposits in the world, which made it enter into a conflict with a mining company thousands of miles away in Australia.
In this context, the Minister of Economy explained that Greenland has a memorandum of understanding with the European Union and many Canadian companies and with Australia, Eastern Europe and the United Kingdom, noting that this situation is subject to change in the future because the island needs all kinds of investments from all over the world.
“We have sought hard to facilitate the start of mining as much as possible, while maintaining very high environmental standards, because we live on the nature and need a clean and good environment. We are also characterized by good working conditions with a high minimum wage, and focus greatly on the safety of employers in the mine.”
In a related context, Nathanisin believes that Donald Trump does not care much about the environment due to the American policies used, but she sees that it is a poor managing business not to understand the necessity of satisfying the partners “because if they are not satisfied with you, they will turn your back and make deals with other parties.”
Openness to financing
As for the duration and difficulty of launching the mines, Nathanelsen explained this by saying, “We seek to cooperate with the countries importing minerals on this because the inauguration of a 16 -year mine takes on average, and during that period we only spend money and we do not gain much. So, we really need to finance these difficult years and support projects if we want the minerals to be part of our production.”
It is noteworthy that Greenland is already cooperating with the United States in the field of minerals under the agreement concluded in 2019 during the first administration of US President Donald Trump, but this agreement is nearing completion. The Minister of Economy stated that the Arctic Island hopes to conclude a new agreement.
This cooperation between the two parties in the field of minerals included mapping, field work, analysis and direct marketing, she said, but she hopes that this will provide the necessary funding to start projects.
As for the role of the former colonizer of the island, the minister emphasized that Denmark does not play a major role in the mining sector at the present time and has not shown remarkable attention to developing it, so we usually work with other countries.
“We currently have one active mine and we have not yet seen its impact on the national treasury revenues, so we are not a mining country yet, but we are working to open more mines during the next five or ten years. We are a small nation and our economy is small, so it will be very useful to run 5 mines only.”
