President Donald Trump’s Greenland mineral claim may be the latest in a long-standing US effort to block China’s access to rare earths on the world’s largest island.
President Trump has provided few details about the Greenland Framework Agreement, which he announced after a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Wednesday. But he told CNBC that this includes mineral rights from the United States and other partners, possibly NATO allies, although it is unclear at this stage.
“They’re going to be involved in the Golden Dome, they’re going to be involved in the mineral rights, and so are we,” President Trump said in an interview with CNBC’s Joe Kernen at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The Trump administration declined CNBC’s request for further information. “Details will be announced once they are finalized by all involved parties,” White House press secretary Anna Kelly said.
“If this agreement goes through, and President Trump very much hopes it will, the United States will achieve all of its strategic goals regarding Greenland forever at very little cost,” Kerry said in a statement.
Rare earths are used to make magnets, which are important raw materials for strategic industries such as defense and robotics. China dominates global supply chains and blocked exports in a trade dispute with the United States last year.
In 2018, the Chinese government declared itself a “near-Arctic state” and a stakeholder in the region.
President Trump has made the development of the Western rare earth supply chain a central goal of his industrial policy in order to reduce the United States’ dependence on China. According to 2024 data from the U.S. Geological Survey, Greenland has 1.5 million tons of rare earth reserves, the eighth largest in the world.
The Chinese government has an economic interest in the Kubaneveld mining project in southern Greenland. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, it is the third largest known land-based rare earth deposit in the world.
China’s Shenghe Resources is the second-largest investor in Australia’s Energy Transition Minerals, owner of Kvanefjeld. The project was halted after Greenland banned uranium mining in 2021, and is currently mired in litigation.
Ryan Castilleux, founder of rare earths market research firm Adamas Intelligence, said a framework that would give the United States preferential access to Greenland’s rare earths “could keep Chinese partners or anyone else from coming back to the table to develop those resources.”
greenland resources
A second project called Tanbreez is under development in southern Greenland, with headquarters in New York City. important metals. The company describes Tambreez as one of the world’s largest rare earth deposits.
Earlier this month, Critical Metals received a letter from the U.S. Export-Import Bank offering a potential $120 million loan for the Tambreeze development. The company’s shares rose about 21% on Thursday, nearly tripling in value this year.
The Biden administration was also concerned that China could gain access to Greenland’s rare earths. CEO Greg Burns told Reuters in January 2025 that he had lobbied developer Tambreeze Mining not to sell the project to a Chinese-linked company. Tambreeze was eventually acquired by Critical Metals.
economic challenges
President Trump said at Davos that the push for Greenland was not about mining rare earths. He said the United States’ interest in Greenland lies in thwarting Chinese and Russian ambitions in the Arctic.
“I want Greenland for security. I don’t want it for anything else,” President Trump told reporters Wednesday before meeting with NATO chiefs. “There are so many rare earths that we don’t know what to do with them. We don’t need them for any other purpose.”
Castilleux said the rare earth supply pipeline is full as the U.S. has made significant progress in ramping up its supply chain over the past year. The Pentagon signed an agreement with a rare earth mining company last year. MP material This included equity stakes, price floors, and offtake agreements.
Supplies from Greenland are not needed in the short term, but the situation could change in the long term, Castilleux said.
The analyst said the economic situation for Greenland’s mining industry is difficult. He said the island’s remoteness and lack of infrastructure would result in high development costs. Greenland’s small population requires that at least some of its skilled labor be transported by air. Shipping costs will also be higher, he says.
President Trump spoke candidly Wednesday about the cost of rare earth mining in Greenland.
“When it comes to Greenland, you have to go eight meters under the ice to get it,” Trump said. “That’s not what a lot of people are going to do or want to do.”
“No, this is security we are talking about,” he said.
