REPORT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

London Mining, a British mineral company, is trying to attract Chinese and other international investors to build a £1.5bn iron ore mine just outside the Arctic Circle in Greenland.

The move comes as BP and Shell join others exploring for oil and gas in the pristine waters off Greenland, as concerns grow that the wave of industrialisation in the region will damage the pristine environment.

 

Greenland and the wider Arctic is seen as one of the new frontiers for exploiting mineral wealth, but uncertain national boundaries have also opened up potential political, if not military, conflicts.

London Mining, whose board includes a former British foreign minister in Sir Nicholas Bonsor, has already opened talks with Chinese mining group Sichuan Xinye and others about helping finance a new mine at Isua.

London Mining chief executive Graeme Hossie said the company was looking at "all options, including Danish, other Nordic, Chinese and other global investors." He said the competition for funding was challenging and it was hard to predict when it would be in place.

The project has received government approval and could result in an influx of more than 3,000 construction workers into the country, which has a population of 57,000, to build a port and pipeline to serve the mine.

At present there is no mining of any kind in Greenland, but the cash-strapped and semi-autonomous country is keen to break away from financial and political dependence on its historical owner, Denmark.

In October a new government in Nuuk led by prime minister Aleqa Hammond gave the go-ahead to the Isua scheme and another at Kvanefjeld, while lifting a decades-long ban on mining uranium and rare-earth minerals.

To read more: - http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/05/greenland-mines-arctic-fears-pristine-environment