Greenland, Denmark ink deal over uranium mining, export

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The government of Denmark and the self‐rule government of Greenland have reached formal agreement to establish an internal framework within Denmark regarding the special foreign, defence, and security policy issues related to the mining and export of uranium from Greenland.

This would lead to Danish legislation that implemented safeguards and export regulations for uranium produced in Greenland.

Greenland assumed self‐rule in 2009, but remained part of Denmark. At the start of self‐rule, Greenland assumed full authority over its mineral and hydrocarbon rights; however, its defence and foreign policies were still managed by Denmark.

The production and export of uranium, therefore, required cooperation between both governments.

The agreement represented another key step towards Greenland enhancing its regulatory system to ensure it was aligned with international standards and best practice associated with uranium and radioactive materials.

It followed Greenland ratifying its accession to a series of international safety conventions relating to uranium in late 2015.

These items were the result of ongoing cooperative work by Greenland and Denmark, which followed the recommendations of a report into uranium mining and export, commissioned in 2013.

This important development highlighted the progress made by Greenland’s authorities on regulatory aspects, which had taken place in parallel to Australian exploration group Greenland Minerals and Energy Limited (GMEL) working to establish an agreed development strategy with Greenland, and finalise an exploitation licence application for its flagship Kvanefjeld project, in southern Greenland.

The application was successfully completed late last year and handed over to Greenland’s regulatory bodies.

GMEL’s key licence in southern Greenland had three delineated deposits that collectively comprised a resource estimate of one-billion tons, containing 593-million pounds of uranium, 11-million tons of rare-earth oxide and 5.3-billion pounds of zinc.

The deposits remained open and represented one of the world’s largest undeveloped resources of rare-earth metals and uranium.

The initial development strategy focused on a subset of Kvanefjeld, the most advanced of the three deposits.

A 108-million-ton ore reserve had been established and was sufficient to sustain a 37-year mine life.