Red-carded Australian miner signals intention to play on in Greenland

Mongabay 12 July 2021: An Australian mining company hoping to build a vast open-cut rare earths and uranium mine on a mountain in southern Greenland has told shareholders it will persist with the project despite the mine having been rejected by the people of the Arctic nation.

Publicly listed Greenland Minerals Limited has been working to develop the Kvanefjeld mine since it acquired an exploration license for the area in 2007, and it achieved a significant milestone in December last year when its environmental impact assessment for the project was finally accepted for public consultation.

However, the advancement of the controversial mine triggered a breakdown of Greenland’s governing coalition and a snap election that served as a referendum on the issue.

In a result the Danish-language newspaper Sermitsiaq referred to as a “decision to give Greenland Minerals the red card,” 37% of voters backed the pro-independence, green-leaning Inuit Ataqatigiit (Community for the People) party, which had adopted an explicit policy to stop the mine and reinstate a uranium mining ban in Greenland.

Read more at Mongabay: https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/red-carded-australian-miner-signals-intention-to-play-on-in-greenland/