Current Affairs Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination

Topic: Arctic Island and Mining Magnets

Context

• The world’s biggest island has huge resources of metals known as ‘rare earths,’ used to create compact, super-strong magnets which help power equipment such as wind turbines, electric vehicles, combat aircraft and weapons systems.

Background

• In the tenth century, Erik the Red, a Viking from Iceland, was so impressed with the vegetation on another Arctic island he had found he called it “the green land.”
• Today, it’s Greenland’s rocks that are attracting outsiders - superpowers riding a green revolution.

Mining Magnets

• As Greenland’s ice sheet and glaciers recede, two Australia-based mining companies - one seeking funding in the United States, the other part-owned by a Chinese state-backed firm - are racing for approval to dig into what the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) calls the world’s biggest undeveloped deposits of rare earth metals.
• Each Greenland mine would cost about $500 million to develop.
• The Greenland sites are less than 16 km (10 miles) from each other at the southern tip of the island.
• The country may ultimately back either project, both, or neither, but for those Greenlanders open to mining, the two proposals boil down to a choice between one mine that would not produce radioactive material, and another that would.

• The first mine, a private initiative from an Australian geologist, would not involve nuclear material.

• It has won preliminary environmental approval, but it needs cash and a processing plan.

• The second one has already spent more than $100 million preparing to mine, has proven processing technology through its Chinese partner, and won initial political support from Greenland’s coalition government.

• But its plans include exporting uranium, a nuclear fuel, and it recently ran into strong opposition, including from residents of the nearby town of Narsaq.

Greenland’s Economy

• Greenland, a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, has a gross domestic product of around $3 billion - similar to Andorra and Burundi.
• With its people living mostly on fishing and grants from Copenhagen, capital of Denmark.
• Greenland’s position near the eastern flank of the United States makes it a sensitive location.

Can be a Curse

• China is a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, so it can import uranium from Greenland. But since the fuel is used in nuclear weapons, that would be sensitive.
• Neither of the Greenland projects would be pollution-free. Both plan for mined rock to be locally crushed and separated into concentrates to send for final processing.