The ice in Greenland is melting, and it is driving billionaires and investors to start hunting for valuable minerals used in the engineering of electric cars.
Studies have found that the ice may have been sitting on valuable minerals.
This has spurred a group of billionaires, including Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg, to begin looking into what is below the surface of the ice and how it can be mined, CNN reported.
They are particularly interested in the hills and valleys of Greenland’s Disko Island and Nuussuaq Peninsula, where it is believed there could be minerals, like cobalt, needed to power electric vehicles.
“We are looking for a deposit that will be the first- or second-largest most significant nickel and cobalt deposit in the world,” Kurt House, CEO of Kobold Metals, told CNN.
If the deposit of valuable minerals is as large as some are predicting, this could represent a breakthrough for electric vehicles.
“The Arctic’s disappearing ice — on land and in the ocean — highlights a unique dichotomy: Greenland is ground zero for the impacts of climate change, but it could also become ground zero for sourcing the metals needed to power the solution to the crisis,” CNN claimed.
In light of this, the band of billionaires is backing Kobold Metals, a mineral exploration company.
Kobold has also partnered with Bluejay Mining to look for rare and precious metals in Greenland.
Do you think the melting of Greenland’s ice is a good thing?
Yes: 36% (13 Votes)
No: 64% (23 Votes)
Already, there are 30 geologists, geophysicists, cooks, pilots and mechanics camped at the site where Kobold and Blujay are searching for the treasured minerals.
“It is a concern to witness the consequences and impacts from the climate changes in Greenland,” Bluejay Mining CEO Bo Møller Stensgaard told CNN. “But, generally speaking, climate changes overall have made exploration and mining in Greenland easier and more accessible.”
While some are concerned about the climate and Greenland’s melting, others are interested in the possibilities in newly exposed land that had been trapped under ice for generations.
“As these trends continue well into the future, there is no question more land will become accessible and some of this land may carry the potential for mineral development,” Mike Sfraga, the chair of the United States Arctic Research Commission, told CNN.
Until now, many have suspected that Greenland might have many natural resources under its ice, but it has been inaccessible for mining because the ice made it impossible to ship the heavy equipment needed.
Now, the melting of the Arctic sea ice makes everything more accessible and open to shipping, as Stensgaard pointed out.
“The big concern for Arctic sea ice is that it’s been disappearing over the last several decades … [It’s] predicted to potentially disappear in 20 to 30 years,” Nathan Kurtz, a NASA scientist studying sea ice, told CNN. “In the fall, what used to be Artic ice cover year-round is now just going to be seasonal ice cover.”
The billionaires who are behind the financing of these new mining schemes have not yet commented on the developments or their investments.
