Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Greenland's natural resources are nearly impossible to mine

theweek.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 94 posts

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

#31

Post by locknitpicker »

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.

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

The word on the street is that it's yet another step to try to keep the Epstein files out of the news.

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

#32

Post by dyauspitr »

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.

Apparently the Lauder billionaire mentioned it because he has a mineral water bottling plant and some other insignificant business there. But Trump liked the idea so it’s basically all this is for some spring water.

More consequentially it’s an attempt to destroy NATO so Putin can have his way with Europe.

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

#33

Post by AlotOfReading »

justin66 wrote: post #14
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…

It's not for mining, but the US built Camp Century and Camp TUTO in the ice to determine how feasible Project Iceworm would be. A construction film about the former was declassified some decades ago [0]. Icefield construction wasn't feasible even in the context of cold-war era MAD spending.

Actual subglacial mining has only been attempted a few times. Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan is in the middle of a couple glaciers and reshaped the landscape to redirect the glaciers a bit. Svea Nord in Svalbard ran tunnels under a glacier for coal. Canada's Granduc mine wasn't technically on or under a glacier, but it was just below one.

[0] https://archive.org/details/TheU.S.ArmysTopSecretArcticCityU...

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

#34

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#35

Post by thatguy0900 »

dyauspitr wrote: post #32
troyvit wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Apparently the Lauder billionaire mentioned it because he has a mineral water bottling plant and some other insignificant business there. But Trump liked the idea so it’s basically all this is for some spring water. More consequentially it’s an attempt to destroy NATO so Putin can have his way with Europe.

Considering how quickly he moved past taking Canada I almost feel like he didn't want it that badly but now he's blustered about it so much it would be embarrassing so not get it.

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

#36

Post by thatguy0900 »

goatlover wrote: post #24
troyvit wrote: 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.

I don't even have hope it will accomplish anything. Everyone who still supports him either doesn't care or will say it's Ai generated.

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

#37

Post by thatguy0900 »

prepend wrote: post #11
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.

If I threatened someone until they sold me something that they made very clear they did not want to sell noone would call it "Buying" and we shouldn't either. It would be extorting. Under no circumstances are we buying Greenland at this point, anything that happens is something else.

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

#38

Post by mixmastamyk »

fifilura wrote: post #30
mixmastamyk wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And? So carve out a wider area. The defeatism is palpable in here, some hackers. Why even get out of bed in the morning, right?

They extract oil from tar sands in Alberta, for example. Difficult things are done all the time that are costly, as long as the price exceeds the cost.

To be clear my post above is not supportive of the administration, but rather the feasibility of mining at high latitudes.

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

#39

Post by fasbiner »

BanAntiVaxxers wrote: post #28
troyvit wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It is Putin’s strategy

Europe going forward is going to be treated the way the US treats and has always treated Latin American and African and Middle Eastern countries. That you see a conspiracy in further coercion of a non-consensual empire indicates how sheltered and "white identity" oriented you are.

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

#40

Post by fasbiner »

thatguy0900 wrote: post #37
prepend wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

If I threatened someone until they sold me something that they made very clear they did not want to sell noone would call it "Buying" and we shouldn't either. It would be extorting. Under no circumstances are we buying Greenland at this point, anything that happens is something else.

Extortion is the right word here.

The problem is that virtually the entire new world and much of the old world was acquired by force and threats of force that has been legitimized over time. So yes, I think this is clearly extortion and any sale that takes would be coerced.

But ever was it thus.

Post reply on HN