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Why Greenland's natural resources are nearly impossible to mine

theweek.com

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Re: Why Greenland's natural resources are nearly impossible to mine

#11

Post by prepend »

david-gpu wrote: post #4

I hope we can at least avoid the sanewashing. > President Donald Trump has renewed his efforts to take over Greenland, and tapping into the Danish territory’s natural resources is a key part of the strategy. It is not "taking over" or "annexing" . It is invading . A military ally , at that. And it is not "tapping into [...] natural resources" . It is plundering their natural resources . None of these hypotheticals ar…

It’s not invading, yet. Just buying or psyopping is more likely than fighting NATO.

Re: Why Greenland's natural resources are nearly impossible to mine

#13

Post by Zigurd »

prepend wrote: post #9
1970-01-01 wrote: post #5

I find it funny that they could simply exit the Antarctic treaty and take over Antarctica and gain more value. There's plenty of good stuff under that ice too. It's very likely that it's got his favorite mineral of all: gold.

I think that’s harder than just buying/hypnotizing/invading/whatever. If we exit the Antarctic treaty, then so will everyone else and there’s multiple competing claims.

The US is on the verge of becoming a pariah within NATO. The Antarctica treaty ain't nothing compared to that.

Re: Why Greenland's natural resources are nearly impossible to mine

#14

Post by justin66 »

ethagknight wrote: post #3

[flagged]

What examples of digging through that amount of ice for the purposes of mining are you familiar with? What's a good example?

It'd be interesting to understand how much the environment there increases the cost of mining. Anything is possible, but it'd be cool to know whether it makes any sense. (and yes, I think our leadership in the US is fully capable of causing an international crisis over mineral assets that would in financial terms be best left in the ground)

Re: Why Greenland's natural resources are nearly impossible to mine

#15

Post by dukeyukey »

prepend wrote: post #8
TitaRusell wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a cost benefit ratio to mining. I imagine it is a lot easier to just strip mine Australia.

It’s definitely easier to mine in Australia. But you can do both. It’s about marginal profitability, not absolute. Do people think we must pick just one place to mine?

You can do both, but why would you? It's not like we've tapped out Australia. And until we have, why bother with Greenland if the same money invested in Australia, or Sweden, or Canada would yield more profit?

Re: Why Greenland's natural resources are nearly impossible to mine

#16

Post by troyvit »

david-gpu wrote: post #4

I hope we can at least avoid the sanewashing. > President Donald Trump has renewed his efforts to take over Greenland, and tapping into the Danish territory’s natural resources is a key part of the strategy. It is not "taking over" or "annexing" . It is invading . A military ally , at that. And it is not "tapping into [...] natural resources" . It is plundering their natural resources . None of these hypotheticals ar…

While we're at it I also fail to see any strategy.

Re: Why Greenland's natural resources are nearly impossible to mine

#17

Post by acdha »

ethagknight wrote: post #3

[flagged]

If “non experts” aren’t welcome, can you establish your expertise on the topic? In particular, what’s your experience with mining thorough ice or maintaining industrial operations in the Arctic or near-arctic conditions?

Re: Why Greenland's natural resources are nearly impossible to mine

#18

Post by Zigurd »

troyvit wrote: post #16
david-gpu wrote: post #4

I hope we can at least avoid the sanewashing. > President Donald Trump has renewed his efforts to take over Greenland, and tapping into the Danish territory’s natural resources is a key part of the strategy. It is not "taking over" or "annexing" . It is invading . A military ally , at that. And it is not "tapping into [...] natural resources" . It is plundering their natural resources . None of these hypotheticals ar…

While we're at it I also fail to see any strategy.

They are button mashing the policy controller

Re: Why Greenland's natural resources are nearly impossible to mine

#19

Post by throwawayqqq11 »

prepend wrote: post #8
TitaRusell wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a cost benefit ratio to mining. I imagine it is a lot easier to just strip mine Australia.

It’s definitely easier to mine in Australia. But you can do both. It’s about marginal profitability, not absolute. Do people think we must pick just one place to mine?

Maybe, people previously thought it was not worth it to mine in greenland and thats why there is no noticable mining operation. But what do i know about cost-ratio or thinking.

Re: Why Greenland's natural resources are nearly impossible to mine

#20

Post by mixmastamyk »

trashtester wrote: post #12
ethagknight wrote: post #3

[flagged]

The main problem with ice, is that it moves all the time. The glaciers on Iceland move up to 46m per day. Also, any tunnel created in fast moving ice could easily be crushed by the pressure of the ice.

Don’t modern mines remove everything over a very large area? It’s not tunnels and pickaxes any longer. The trucks are the size of a three story building.

Start with a few bunker busting bombs, work outside of winter, dump ice, dirt into ocean. Sounds plausible.

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