President Donald Trump said Friday that the United States would “do something on Greenland whether they like it or not,” renewing his push to take control of the Arctic island from Denmark. The renewed pitch comes as Trump argues that obtaining rare earths outside of China is critical for the supply chains behind high-tech products.
The report highlights why Greenland has remained a largely theoretical option for rare-earth mining. It says Greenland’s harsh environment and lack of key infrastructure have prevented anyone from building a mine to extract rare earth elements. Even if Trump prevails and Greenland’s political control changes, the article says those practical mining challenges would remain.
It also links Trump’s Greenland focus to the broader U.S.-China competition over rare earths. The report says Trump has prioritized breaking China’s “stranglehold” on global rare earth supply after the United States imposed widespread tariffs last spring that sharply restricted who could buy rare earths. It says the Trump administration has invested hundreds of millions of dollars and taken stakes in several companies, and that Trump is now pitching Greenland control as a way to solve the supply problem.
In comments quoted in the report, Trump tied the proposal to concerns about Russia and China. “We don’t want Russia or China going to Greenland, which if we don’t take Greenland, you can have Russia or China as your next door neighbor. That’s not going to happen,” Trump said at the White House Friday, according to the article.
The report presents experts who question whether Greenland can realistically become a fast solution. Tracy Hughes, founder and executive director of the Critical Minerals Institute, said that the focus on Greenland has been shaped by political messaging rather than technical feasibility. She said, “The fixation on Greenland has always been more about geopolitical posturing — a military-strategic interest and stock-promotion narrative — than a realistic supply solution for the tech sector,” and added, “The hype far outstrips the hard science and economics behind these critical minerals.”
The article describes how Greenland’s rare earth resources face challenges tied to both access and geology. It says the main challenge to mining in Greenland is remoteness, noting that even in the south, there are few roads and no railways, so a mining venture would have to build its own access. Diogo Rosa, an economic geology researcher at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, is quoted describing additional needs including generating local power and bringing in expert manpower.
The report also frames environmental and economic tradeoffs for Greenland as it seeks a tourism industry. Patrick Schröder, a senior fellow at London-based Chatham House, is quoted raising concerns that the process of separating minerals from rock uses toxic chemicals that can be highly polluting and affect areas downstream. He also points to the possibility that rare earths in Greenland are often found alongside radioactive uranium.
Geology is a central part of the explanation. The article says rare earths in Greenland are often encased in a complex rock type called eudialyte, and that no one has developed a profitable process to extract rare earths from that kind of rock. It contrasts that with elsewhere, where rare earth elements are normally found in different rock formations called carbonatites and where there are proven methods to work with those materials.
The report cites a supply-chain logic used by rare-earth experts who argue for prioritizing mines that can reach markets sooner. David Abraham, a rare earths expert who wrote the book “The Elements of Power,” is quoted saying, “If we’re in a race for resources — for critical minerals — then we should be focusing on the resources that are most easily able to get to market.”
It also notes market signals and the limits of progress so far. The article says Critical Metals’ stock price more than doubled after the company said it plans to build a pilot plant in Greenland this year, but adds that even companies exploring Greenland deposits remain far from building a mine and would still need to raise at least hundreds of millions of dollars.
Beyond Greenland’s specific constraints, the report says producing rare earths remains difficult and that pricing pressures can affect whether new projects become profitable. It says China has at times dumped extra materials to depress prices and drive competitors out of business, and notes that most critical minerals have to be processed in China. It also describes the U.S. as working to expand supply outside China during a one-year reprieve from even tougher restrictions, which Trump said in the report were agreed to by Xi Jinping in October.
The article quotes Ian Lange, an economics professor who focuses on rare earths at the Colorado School of Mines, who said, “Everybody’s just been running to get to this endpoint. And if you go to Greenland, it’s like you’re going back to the beginning.” In the report’s account, the implication is that shifting to Greenland would require restarting difficult steps rather than accelerating them.
The report closes with a push from industry participants for investing in more established projects rather than attempting to build new mines in Greenland or other harder-to-develop locations. It says the U.S. government has invested directly in MP Materials, which runs the only rare earths mine in the U.S., and it also says the government has invested in a lithium miner and in a company that recycles batteries and other products containing rare earths.
Scott Dunn, CEO of Noveon Magnetics, is quoted saying there are few parties with a track record for delivering in each step needed and that efforts should start with those capabilities. “There are very few folks that can rely on a track record for delivering anything in each of these instances, and that obviously should be where we start, and especially in my view if you’re the U.S. government,” Dunn said, according to the report. The article says Noveon is already producing more than 2,000 metric tons of magnets each year at a plant in Texas from elements it gets outside China, and it adds that more than 90% of the world’s rare earths come from China.