The Government of Greenland has decided to grant an extraction permit to Greenland Resources and their project near Mestersvig in East Greenland.
On Wednesday this week, the Government of Greenland decided to grant a mining permit to Greenland Resources, which is working to extract molybdenum and magnesium at Piiaaffik Høstakken southeast of Mestersvig in East Greenland.
Wednesday in thisAnnouncement
This is stated by the Government of Greenland in an invitation to a signing ceremony, which will take place on Thursday morning.
This is the second time in a month that the Greenland Government has granted a 30-year mining permit to a mining company. At the end of May, Greenland Anorthosite Mining was granted a mining permit for anorthosite from an area northeast of Qeqertarsuatsiaat.
FAKTA OM EFTERFORSKNINGEN I MALMBJERGET
The 1,750-meter-high Malmbjerg, located 185 km north of Ittoqqortoormiit, was systematically mapped as part of the Werner Bjerge complex by members of the East Greenland expedition back in 1954. The expedition found that the mountain contained large amounts of the element molybdenum, which – if added in small quantities – increases the strength and heat resistance of steel. Molybdenum is used, for example, today in the development of oil pipes, components in aircraft and missiles.
In 1955, the first company, “Nordisk Mineselskab A/S”, came to the area. They conducted further drilling tests and surveys with a view to exporting molybdenum, but world market prices were at that time too low to make it economically viable to establish a mine, processing plant and infrastructure in the area.
It was not until the early 2000s that molybdenum prices began to rise, and in 2004 the English company Galahad Gold PLC, through the company International Molydenum PLC, attempted to develop two licenses at Malmbjerget based on an extensive drilling program that led to an approved resource estimate of approximately 200 million tonnes of 0.2 percent molybdenum sulphide.
In 2007, the Canadian company Quadra Mining acquired a majority stake in International Molydenum PLC, and conducted a feasibility study that concluded that it would cost 4 billion kroner to establish a mine, including a processing plant, gravel runway, road and shipping port. The company expected a turnover of 500 million dollars (2.5 billion kroner) per year over the mine’s estimated lifespan of 15-20 years. But then molybdenum prices fell again, and Quadra Mining postponed the investment in the mine, which was otherwise scheduled to open in 2012.
In 2018, Canadian Greenland Resources took over the license for Malmbjerget. Source: GEUS
Strategically important raw material for the EU
Greenland Resources is a Canadian mining company that in 2024 received the self-government award “Prospector and developer of the year” at the PDAC conference in Toronto.
On that occasion, Naalakkersuisoq’s representative for raw materials, Naaja H. Nathanielsen (IA), stated that molybdenum plays an important role in the EU’s green energy transition, and that the Malmbjerg Molybdenum Project is a good example of how Greenland can help secure raw materials for the EU.
Chairman of the board of Greenland Resources, Ruben Shiffman, estimated at the same time that the project could supply a quarter of the EU’s molybdenum consumption, and it has already attracted interest from downstream industries in the EU.
Although the project has received an extraction permit, there is still a lot of work ahead for the mining company, for example finding financing before the first raw materials can be extracted.