With less than 60,000 inhabitants, Greenland may seem like a small player on the world stage. Still, some superpowers watched this week’s elections on the island, which officially belongs to Denmark. The reason: the battle for a mine where highly sought-after minerals and metals can be mined.
According to the preliminary results, the left-wing Inuit Ataqatigiit party (IA) has won the elections. That party, which opposed the mining project in the south of the country, received more than a third of the vote. Party leader Egede has already said he will halt development of the mine.
His IA party defeated the Social Democratic Siumut. That party has been in power almost continuously since 1979. The current Prime Minister Kielsen is in favor of exploiting the mine, although there is also disagreement within his party. That internal stuff led to yesterday’s early elections being called.
Contested mine
The mine that played a leading role in the election campaign is called Kvanefjeld. Rare earth metals can be mined that are used for the production of, for example, smartphones, wind turbines and batteries for electric cars. But the extraction of those metals also releases uranium, a radioactive metal.
“That makes the exploitation of the mine controversial”, said NOS correspondent Rolien Créton earlier in the radio program News and Co. “Opponents are afraid of environmental damage, pollution of ground and drinking water. They are also concerned about the mining waste that would be stored in a reservoir.”
But there are also many proponents: “They think about the income and extra jobs, which are badly needed in Greenland. The mining project will probably also lead to new infrastructure, a port and a factory.”
The photo accompanying this tweet (from two years ago) shows the area around the mine:
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