# Fearing toxic waste, Greenland ended uranium mining. Now, they could be forced to restart - or pay $11bn

The island is being sued by a mining company over its decision, and faces paying nine times its annual budget in damages if it loses.

The claim is not so far-fetched, given that some tribunals have awarded astronomically high damages for mining and similar projects.



Greenland is home to one of the largest undeveloped deposits of rare-earth minerals and uranium in the world: the Kvanefjeld site, or Kuannersuit in Greenlandic. It contains high concentrations of metals such as terbium and neodymium, which are used to manufacture permanent magnets in wind turbines and electric cars. Every major power in the world is scrambling to get access to these minerals for carbon-free energy and transport.

A proposed open-pit mine would be worth about $7.5bn (£6bn) if it went ahead, according to the site operator, Energy Transition Minerals (ETM), generating income for the island’s economy.

The range is home to one of the largest undeveloped deposits of rare-earth minerals and uranium in the world: the Kvanefjeld site, or Kuannersuit in Greenlandic. It contains high concentrations of metals such as terbium and neodymium, which are used to manufacture permanent magnets in wind turbines and electric cars. Every major power in the world is scrambling to get access to these minerals for carbon-free energy and transport.

A proposed open-pit mine would be worth about $7.5bn (£6bn) if it went ahead, according to the site operator, Energy Transition Minerals (ETM), generating income for the island’s economy.

A  on the  reveals that the company’s $11.5bn claim is based on the $7.5bn value of the mine and the $4bn in interest.

**They try to bully us and make us feel small**



Narsaq in south-west Greenland is home to about 1,300 people – and huge deposits of rare-earth minerals.

Photograph: Partrick Greenfield/The Guardian

“For us, it’s a principle of governments deciding power,” says Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland’s mining minister, who also has business, trade, justice and gender equality in her portfolio. “We were elected democratically. We had a public hearing process with the law. It offends me that they are trying the case in this way.

“It really challenges the democratic institutions,” Nathanielsen says. “We are going to fight until the end because it’s a matter of principle.” She refuses to say what losing the case might mean for Greenland.

Daniel Mamadou-Blanco, managing director of ETM, says his company understands how democracies work. “We were asked to apply for a mining licence, which we did. In the process, we raised the necessary capital to move to the next step,” he says.

“There is a change of government – which is democratically elected – which has made a promise to specifically stop this project for political reasons. That’s absolutely fine but, in this case, that’s an expropriation. If it’s an expropriation, we are entitled to compensation,” he says.

Greenland’s government is keen to develop a mining industry that will sustain its future independence without critically damaging its environment. Currently, the country relies on Denmark for about half of its annual budget.

While there is just one active mine, the island is being prospected by many of the world’s largest companies, including . Southern Greenland has become a new frontier of global mining, with at least  at various stages of development across the island. It has also become the latest site of the growing economic confrontation between the US and China, with Donald .



Sodalite deposits near the Kvanefjeld site. The mineral, a gemstone also used in making ceramics, glass and steel, glows orange when exposed to UV light.

Photograph: Jan Richard Heinicke

Despite the intense global interest, Greenland’s government says it will not be moved in the case of the Narsaq deposit.

“It tries to bully us and make us feel small. That’s not going to happen,” Nathanielsen says. “Energy Transition Minerals don’t have that kind of money . They would not have been able to succeed without  support, which makes their argument even more pitiful.”

The mining company is not paying its own legal fees, although it insists it would have been capable of bringing the case on its own. Burford Capital, a London- and New York-listed litigation finance specialist, has invested in the case, covering the cost of the arbitration proceedings in exchange for a share of the financial benefits if it is successful.

It is among 75 cases found by the Guardian that have been financed by litigation finance investors – a trend that has grown dramatically since the system began. Other examples include a US-based deep-sea exploration company called Odyssey Marine Exploration, which  from the Mexican state after it was denied an environmental permit to mine a large area of seabed off the coast.

For proponents of the system, the rise of no-win, no-fee investment in arbitration helps more companies access justice than would do otherwise, protecting them from bad behaviour by states. But others fear that a new asset class has been created which profits from laws designed to mitigate the climate crisis and environmental damage.

Malcolm Langford, a professor of public law at the University of Oslo, says it pits two wings of the environmental movement against each other: investors eager to extract rare earths for the green transition vying with traditional concerns about hazardous industries.

“The amount of potential damages is a wild card,” he says. “The claim by the investors  is not so far-fetched, given that some tribunals have awarded astronomically high damages for mining and similar projects. It is clear though that the billion-dollar claim in this case is designed to push Greenlanders to change their mind and allow mining to start.”



A helicopter flies from the mine. Since Donald Trump’s comments about annexing Greenland, investors are more optimistic that mining will go ahead.

Photograph: Danita Delimont/Alamy

In 2015, Italy banned offshore oil and gas exploration within 12 miles of its coastline on environmental grounds. Rockhopper, a UK-based oil and gas company,  operations on its Ombrina Mare oilfield and was awarded €190m (£159m), plus interest, of Italian public money in compensation for lost future profits. Italy is still trying to get the decision annulled. No payment has yet been made.

For proponents of the system, the rise of no-win, no-fee investment in arbitration helps more companies access justice than would do otherwise, protecting them from bad behaviour by states. But others fear that a new asset class has been created which profits from laws designed to mitigate the climate crisis and environmental damage.



Protesters from the environmental group _Urani? Naamik_ (Uranium? No thanks) wait for ETM executives to arrive in Narsaq.

Photograph: Jan Richard Heinicke

Kyla Tienhaara, an associate professor at Queen’s University in Canada, says that although a rapid transition to clean energy is needed, local communities and governments should still have the right to reject mining projects that threaten ecosystems or create unacceptable risks to human health and wellbeing.

“Time and time again, what we see around the world is that when extractive projects are rejected on these grounds, investors turn to arbitration with exorbitant compensation claims,” she says. “Even the threat of such a claim can cause governments to reverse course.”

**A high-stakes business**

In February, representatives from the Perth-based ETM travelled to Greenland to visit the island once again. The arbitration case, launched in 2022, has proceeded slowly due to lengthy disagreements about procedure. This summer, arbitrators will decide whether they should accept the case. If they do, the issue is likely to be resolved later this year.



A helicopter flies from the mine. Since Donald Trump’s comments about annexing Greenland, investors are more optimistic that mining will go ahead.

Photograph: Danita Delimont/Alamy

After the 2021 general election, the value of the mining company collapsed. But now, investor optimism is changing. After Trump’s comments about Greenland, the company’s share price has surged – more than quadrupling since November. Greenlanders go to the polls again this month, and a new government could allow mining to go ahead. The company has raised more capital, following the bounce in its share price.

Outside a slaughterhouse in Narsaq, a group of men dressed in blue overalls smoke as they wait for the first seasonal shipment of Greenlandic sheep to arrive. The bay is largely silent after a day of drizzle, which caused loud booms all night as icebergs broke apart. Finally, a boat comes into view in the fjord and everyone scrambles to unload the shipment.

There is a range of opinion about the mine in Narsaq, says Kitdlak Lynge, a production management assistant at the slaughterhouse, as we wait.

“People are divided into two different groups because of the uranium,” he says. “I am not worried about whether the mine happens, I am worried about how. The plans I have seen are not acceptable. It’s going to destroy the water.”



Sheep being herded on to a boat to be taken to the abattoir. Many Greenlanders are deeply concerned by what an open-pit mine could do to the environment.

Photograph: Bradley Secker

Dozens of thick-coated sheep scramble towards the abattoir from the harbour. Within weeks, the bay behind them will fill with pack ice as the cold sets in, sometimes cutting Narsaq off from the world for days. The arrival of fat seal pups lying on the ice will signal the start of spring and the return of the light. Farther around the coast, polar bears will feast on the seals as the region bursts into life once again. Nobody knows what an open-pit mine would mean for any of that.

The chemicals and the tailings that they’re going to use, I do not want them to be left here,” says Lynge. “If they could ship them outside of Greenland, I wouldn’t mind.  it will affect the whole area if mining starts – the chemicals, the industry and the changes in the environment will affect the whole area.”

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