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Why Greenland's natural resources are nearly impossible to mine

theweek.com

21–30 of 94 posts

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

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Ok, and then repeat that every week when the new ice moves in?

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

#22

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.

Don’t give governments bad ideas —surely the treaty will collapse one day and the big powers will divvy it up and push out the has been powers from the playground… but let’s keep things as they are as long as possible.

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

#24
post #16

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.

Nobody is talking about how less than 1% of the Epstein files have been released weeks past the deadline after Venezuela, ICE in Minneapolis and Greenland.

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

#25
post #11

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.

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

Threatening to invade (which the Trump administration has been explicitly doing) is about as damaging as invading in the long run, either way we have sent the message loud and clear that the US is no longer a reliable ally and everyone has to shift away from the post-WW2 world order.

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

#26
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Nobody is talking about how less than 1% of the Epstein files have been released weeks past the deadline after Venezuela, ICE in Minneapolis and Greenland.

Plenty of people are still talking about that.

There are a lot of people and they talk about lots of different things.

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

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Ok, and then repeat that every week when the new ice moves in?

It’s a misconception that there’s a lot of precipitation in the polar regions. They’re actually quite dry due to low humidity.

But yes mines continue mining, is that somehow unexpected?

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

#28
post #16

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.

It is Putin’s strategy

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

#29

[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.

Greenland isn't entirely covered in ice. Take a look at any of the mineral resources maps floating around for the country. Everything's on the coastal margins in places only covered by seasonal snow. The interior is a big blank because no one's been able to search under the ice.

However, the adjacent Canadian provinces (Nunavut & Northern Labrador) share many of the same geologic provinces, also without significant glaciation. There aren't a lot of big mines up there relative to the mineral wealth because it's simply too challenging. Constructing big infrastructure in the arctic takes resources approaching nation-state levels. Most mining companies can't muster that or maintain it long-term.

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

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, and then repeat that every week when the new ice moves in?

It’s a misconception that there’s a lot of precipitation in the polar regions. They’re actually quite dry due to low humidity. But yes mines continue mining, is that somehow unexpected?

The ice comes from the side not from above.
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