Donald Trump Still Wants Greenland, But Does He Want Its Rare Earths Too?

Donald Trump still wants Greenland,

but does he want its rare earths too?

Although minerals like graphite and lithium,

as well as rare earth metals

have in front of mind in Trump's dealings

and security guarantees with Ukraine,

the US President has repeatedly stated that they're nothing

to do with his desire to acquire Greenland,

which he says is completely rooted in security concerns.

One expert I spoke with said that

this argument quickly falls apart.

Mikkel Runge Olesen, a senior researcher

at the Danish Institute for International Studies,

points out that the US already

has a longstanding defense agreement with Denmark

that gives it extensive freedom

to operate militarily in Greenland.

From a NATO perspective, Trump's logic

that you can only defend what you own directly

is deeply flawed.

Alliances like NATO are built precisely

on defending territory you don't own, Olesen said.

And applying a real estate mindset to collective security

could create more instability than protection.

So what about Greenland's plentiful rare earth resources?

They could support the hardware and energy systems

behind AI and advanced technologies.

But while Greenland is home to two rare earth deposits

often cited for containing elements

such as neodymium and praseodymium,

which are used in permanent magnets

for energy and industrial applications,

no rare earth mining to date has ever taken place.

The Kvanefjeld deposit,

which contains minerals of significant potential value,

was effectively halted in 2021

due to the presence of uranium.

A common feature of many rare earth deposits.

And even if you take the minerals argument seriously,

the practical barriers are enormous.

Dr. Philip Andrews-Speed from the Oxford Institute

for Energy Studies told me that,

While Greenland may have mineral resources

that look attractive on paper,

that doesn't automatically translate

into a commercially viable supply.

Arctic mining is slow, expensive,

environmentally contentious,

and politically fraught, he told me.

And crucially, mining alone

doesn't break dependence on China,

which still holds a dominant position

in rare earth processing and supply chains,

because refining and processing capacity

still largely sit outside the US.