🇺🇸🇬🇱🛢🇩🇰 Greenland's mineral wealth is greatly exaggerated

Exploring and mining in the Arctic is a literal hellscape. The constraints are insane and the costs to overcome them are mooning way past imagination.

Geologically, permafrost is a nightmare. Ground is frozen solid. Normal drilling hits a wall. Building stable foundations for gear is a massive investment.

Operations are far more difficult too. Constant darkness for months in winter. Working 24/7 under floodlights craters efficiency and spikes accident risk.

At -40°C to -50°C, metal gets brittle and just snaps. You need custom alloy gear and keeping fuel/lube from freezing is a constant battle. The diesel/power burn just to keep lights on and engines warm is a nightmare. Immediate Opex blow-up.

Logistics? Absolute disaster. It’s not about digging it out; it’s about moving it.

Zero roads or rails. Everything moves by helicopter, light plane, or ship. Moving ore to a port costs multiples of what normal mines pay. Plus, zero local smelters. The minerals have to be shipped across oceans, burning time and cash.

Shipping windows are tiny. Some fjords/sections of Greenland's coast only accessible a few months a year. You either pay for icebreakers or pray the 1-year supply/export window doesn’t get wrecked by bad weather. If the ship misses the slot, the whole year is lost.

Look at the Citronen Fjord Zn project at 83°N. It’s one of the world's biggest undeveloped Zn-Pb deposits, but it's 2,100km north of Nuuk. Total isolation.

They get a 3-month window to move a year’s worth of cargo. One bad storm and the project is bricked for the season. Ironbark Zinc tried for ages, but it just got flipped to Dubai-based Almeera Ventures. That’s a clear signal on how brutal the Capex and funding hurdles are.

The core issue: does the margin even justify the risk? Building a mine w/ zero infra is a Capex black hole.

Think global warming helps? Think again.

Thawing permafrost is actually trashing existing infra and roads. Extreme weather just jacks up Opex even more.

We’re talking 10-15 yrs from discovery to first ore. If commodity prices crater in between, you're left holding a stranded asset.

This is the reality of mining. Arctic development is 10x harder than anyone thinks. There’s a reason Denmark wasn't aggressive on developing Greenland.

You really think they held back just to protect the Inuit? Give me a break. Money always trumps ESG in the end, no matter the optics.

You can spam 'self-sufficiency' and 'strategy' all u want, but you can't meme your way past physics and economics.

🔗 CrudeOil123