{"id":47431,"date":"2024-06-21T11:50:12","date_gmt":"2024-06-21T10:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=47431"},"modified":"2024-06-21T11:57:28","modified_gmt":"2024-06-21T10:57:28","slug":"under-northern-lights-untapping-potential-worlds-largest-cryolite-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/under-northern-lights-untapping-potential-worlds-largest-cryolite-mine\/47431\/","title":{"rendered":"Under the northern lights: Untapping the potential of the world\u2019s largest cryolite mine"},"content":{"rendered":"
A chasm of an open pit resting on the banks of the fjords of the Labrador Sea looked more the part of a biblical disaster than a mine.<\/p>\n
However, the Greenlanders of the twin settlements of \u2018Green Valley\u2019 Kangil\u00ednguit and Gr\u00f8nnedal didn\u2019t build their townships around a cataclysm, but Ivigt\u00fbt<\/a>, a massive and singular known naturally occurring source of cryolite.<\/p>\n Ivigt\u00fbt was mined for a century and a half before the shutters came down in 1987, and the pit was drowned with water. The story of what is now Ivittuut is not over, as there, within eyesight amid the melting snow, lies a mineral endowment holding strategic importance for greater powers than its Australian owner.<\/p>\n The semi-autonomous nation of Greenland has long had a unique global value. Long before the ambitious Donald Trump announced intentions for the US to buy Greenland off Denmark in 2019, then-US president Harry Truman proposed its purchase as a geographical defence against Soviet bombers. During Truman\u2019s 1945-53 leadership, the area now known as Kangilinnguit had been in US hands, with the US military protecting its prized cryolite quarry area during World War II. Later, the US handed back the area dubbed Green Valley to the Danish in 1951.<\/p>\n Greenland is of different importance in modern times. As the ice melts and lucrative sailing routes open, untapped resources have again captured the attention of major geopolitical powers. China views Greenland as an entry point into the Arctic, the United States as its northernmost military presence, and both as potentially massive sources of rare earth elements<\/a>.<\/p>\nGreenland\u2019s historical mining importance<\/h3>\n
The Gr\u00f8nnedal Rare Earth Project<\/h3>\n