Climate change is melting Greenland. In the record year of 2019 alone, sea level rose by 1.5 mm due to melting ice by 532 billion tons. According to scientists, this has an impact on our everyday life – severe weather phenomena are becoming more and more frequent. But Greenland’s thaw also provides an opportunity for investors and mining companies, ironically, to fight climate change.
It is related to nickel, copper, cobalt and platinum. All important raw materials for the production of electric cars. This is one of the pillars of the green energy transition announced by a large number of countries in recent years. The thaw should make it easier to find those raw materials. Billionaires like Microsoft founder Bill Gates (66), Amazon boss Jeff Bezos (58) and media mogul Michael Bloomberg (80) want to take advantage of him.
Hundreds of millions of electric cars
Wealthy Americans are betting that the hills and valleys of Disco Island and Greenland’s Nosuak Peninsula contain enough vital minerals to power hundreds of millions of electric cars in the future. “We are looking for deposits that contain the second largest nickel – and cobalt deposit in the world,” says Kurt House, CEO of Kobold Metals, in an interview with CNN.
Gates, Bezos, and Bloomberg provide financial support to Kobold Metals, a California-based startup. They do not want to comment on their project in front of the American TV camera. There will be a lot of educational work to be done, because the construction is intertwined. In turn, Kobold is working with Bluejay Mining to find rare and precious minerals in Greenland needed to build electric cars and massive batteries to store renewable energy.
Drilling will start early summer 2023
A team of 30 geologists, geophysicists, cooks, pilots and mechanics have camped at the site where companies prospect for raw materials on behalf of billionaires. CNN reports in detail this week on the “greatest treasure hunt” of our time – With video recordings of on-site activities.
In addition to helicopters, drones are also used. They measure the electromagnetic field of the subsoil in order to obtain information about the underlying rock layers. The data is analyzed with the help of artificial intelligence. As early as next summer, it must be determined exactly where the digging can occur.
Is an environmental catastrophe looming?
While it is alarming to see the consequences and impacts of climate change in Greenland, Bluejay Mining CEO Bo Møller Stensgaard told CNN. “But overall, climate change has made prospecting and mining in Greenland easier and more accessible.”
The activities of American billionaires in Greenland are also viewed critically. Researchers even fear an environmental catastrophe. “You’re basically right in the ocean,” says Jeffrey Welker, a professor at the University of Alaska who has been studying the Arctic ecosystem for decades. “This could potentially lead to some environmentally hazardous situations if this fjord were to be polluted. Any disruption of the marine system by any activity could be disastrous for the population,” he told The Daily Beast.
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