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Źródło: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250121-the-enormous-challenge-of-mining-greenland

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Greenland is getting a lot of international attention for its mineral resources – but what is hiding under the ice?

Greenland is getting a lot of international attention for its mineral resources – but what is hiding under the ice?

The riches thought to lie beneathleżeć pod Greenland's icy terrainlodowy teren have been covetedpożądane for more than a century. But how easy are they to access, and will climate change make any difference?

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But – despite the unbridlednieokiełznany excitement brewing around Greenland's treasure troveskarbnica – the process of finding, extracting, and transporting minerals and fossil fuels is a multilayered, multinational, and multidecadalwieloletni challenge.

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Everywhere on Earth, the scars and signaturesblizny i ślady of immense stretches of time are recorded in geologygeologia. Spewing volcanic eruptions and slow-cooling magmas, giant continentalkontynentalny collisions and taffy-like rips that eventually open up new oceans – all these geologic performancesgeologiczne przedstawienia are written in the rocks. And an old land mass like Greenland contains detailed documentationszczegółowa dokumentacja of the Earth's history.

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"The history of Greenland goes backsięga as far as the history of pretty much anything in the world," explains Kathryn Goodenough, principal geologist with the British Geological Survey. She explains that Greenland, once upon a timedawno temu, was part of a larger continent that would have included some of northern Europe and some of North America today. Around 500 million years ago, Greenland was part of a supercontinentsuperkontynent, wedged between Europe and North America.

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But the Earth is always evolvingewoluujący. Around 60 to 65 million years ago, the supercontinent began to pull apartrozpadać się, creating a riftryft that eventually opened, creating the North Atlantic Oceantworząc Ocean Atlantycki.

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"The explorationeksploracja of Greenland, especially north-east Greenland, was a hot topicgorący temat 120, 130 years ago," says Thomas Find Kokfelt, senior researcherstarszy badacz at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS). Various mineralsminerały were discovered and mines began to pop upzaczęły się pojawiać.

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Geologicgeologiczny mapping in Greenland began in earnestna poważnie after World War Two. After 20 years of trekking along the coastline, it became clear that mapping was a humungous undertakingogromne przedsięwzięcie. "If you divide all of the ice-free areas of Greenland, you can probably fit 200 map sheets of a one to 100,000 scale," Find Kokfelt says. When the geologists did the mathszrobili obliczenia, they realised it would take 200 years to finish mapping at their current rate. They pivoted toprzeszli na a coarsergrubszy resolution effort and finished the initial geologicgeologiczny maps of Greenland in the early 2000s.

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While critical mineralskrytyczne minerały are likely in Greenland, it is unclear if mining is economically viableekonomicznie opłacalny. That's where exploration comes inwchodzi w grę. "Mineral exploration is amongst the most challenging and risky of enterprisesprzedsięwzięcia related to mining," says Simon Jowitt, director of the Ralph J. Roberts Center for Research and Economic Geology at the University of Nevada, Reno. He notes that for every 100 mineral exploration projects, one of them might turn into a mine.

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If the explorationeksploracja efforts reveal a mine's potentialujawnić potencjał kopalni, on average, it can still take about 10 years to go fromprzejść od discovery to productionodkrycie do produkcji, Jowitt says. "It all depends on where you are, what the infrastructureinfrastruktura is, what permittinguzyskiwanie pozwoleń and other things you have to do to make sure that you're going to be mining in a conscientious waywydobywanie w sposób sumienny."

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Processing minerals can also be a fraughtnapięty endeavourprzedsięwzięcie. Unlike a mineral such as gold, which is found in its native statestan naturalny within a rock, rare earth elementspierwiastki ziem rzadkich are locked withinuwięzione w another complicated mineral, explains Goodenough. "Those deposits are very, very difficult to process, and sometimes intimatelyściśle connected with uranium or with other elements that you might not want to be mining."

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But the waste rockskała odpadowa was not inertnieaktywny.

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The cold temperatures and low salinityzasolenie around Greenland made environmental recoveryodbudowa środowiska painfully slow, and effects can still be detected 50 years later, says Merrild. "Damaging the water is really damaging the whole food supplyzaopatrzenie w żywność of Greenlanders and their opportunity to have a livelihoodśrodki do życia based on fisheries and hunting."

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To fostersprzyjać cooperation with international companies and avoid misstepsbłędy, Merrild says Greenlanders should be involved in the mining process from start to finishod początku do końca. "People see [mining] as an opportunity, but they would very much like to take part inbrać udział w the development, to be co-owners, and be a part of the planning of the project," she says.

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