Who Will Win the Race for Greenland’s Rare Earths?

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2:10Not a time, effort, and money that's been put into this trip. My thought is getting anything is better than nothing. That's Drew Horn. He's the founder and CEO of a company called GreenMet. He was talking to my colleague Joe Doe earlier this spring, as the two of them were getting ready to make a site visit. But this was not your typical site visit. I confess I have never been, and I'm genuinely curious what it takes to get there. For the most part, it is you fly out of Newark or JFK, you fly to Copenhagen, and then you have to spend a day in Copenhagen because there's only one direct flight a day from Copenhagen to Nook.

2:49The capital. The capital of Greenland. Greenland. Joe and Drew were going there to check out what could become a new mine that Drew was hoping the Trump administration might invest in. Drew Horn, during the first administration, was a part of the team that were supposed to focus on Greenland. So Drew's been to Greenland like a half dozen or a dozen times in his life. Greenland, as we've established, is not easy to get to. It's part of the Kingdom of Denmark, but it's north of, well, pretty much everything. It's east of the easternmost part of Canada and west of Iceland. Most of Greenland is covered with snow year-round.

3:28And so, after an arduous 48-hour journey to Nook, to Greenland's capital, Joe Doe and Drew Horn started their next leg to a place called Tanbreeze, named for some of the rare earth elements it contains, tantalum, niobium, and zirconium. Tanbreeze is a piece of mountain. It is fairly widely accepted by geologists to be an incredible deposit of rare earths. If you can figure out how to get it out of the ground and process it. Those rare earths are crucial to manufacturing automobiles, airplanes, defense technology, and wind turbines. China is the number one source of viable rare earth minerals in the world.

4:09And that's raised national security concerns for years. President Trump was eyeing Greenland during his first term. President Trump has been considering the idea of buying Greenland. Essentially, it's a large real estate deal. A lot of things could be done. And since Trump returned to office, as the trade war with China has escalated, and because of Russia's aggression in Europe, President Trump's interest in Greenland has intensified. We need Greenland, very importantly, for international security. We have to have Greenland. It's not a question of do you think we can do without it. Trump said he wanted the United States to take over Greenland and that he won't rule out the use of military force to do it.

4:51The people around the president see the potential of more fisheries. They see the potential of mineral resources. They see the potential of power, hydroelectric power. So I think they look at all of that and say, you have a robust commercial industry that you're starting to build out. while also using that business partnership to fulfill the actual national security issues that you want to address. And I think we're going to get it. One way or the other, we're going to get it. But Greenland is not up for grabs. And harvesting rare earth minerals there is extraordinarily difficult. Just getting to the Tanbreeze site proved almost impossible.

5:36Drew and Joe were on a tight deadline. They flew into Greenland on May 1st, and Drew was due at Mar-a-Lago about a week later. But when they landed in southern Greenland en route to Tanbreeze, a dense fog rolled in. And our helicopter pilot, this French pilot, came to us first thing in the morning that we were supposed to go and said all flights have been canceled in and out of the region, so we're not flying. So that's part of the game in flying in Greenland, decision-making, because you don't want to be stuck out there.

6:11I'm David Gurra, and this is The Big Take from Bloomberg News. Today on the show, the Trump administration has big ambitions for Greenland. But what would it take to achieve them? And what does Greenland have to say about it?

6:27Joe Doe has spent years covering metals for Bloomberg. Now his beat is economic statecraft. And he's been following the growing interest in rare earth minerals closely. If you look at any electric engine in an automobile or a wind turbine, you need permanent magnets to keep the propeller or whatever it is, the moving parts to keep going in perpetuity. The rare earth minerals inside those magnets make them strong and durable. they can withstand very high heat. And so that's why they've always been critically important to the Defense Department, but are now becoming increasingly critical to data centers and artificial intelligence.

7:07Two years ago, China announced it would be limiting exports of certain elements that are used in things like electric vehicles and fiber optic cables. And in April, in response to Trump's Liberation Day tariffs, the country restricted the export of several more rare earths, plus the actual magnets themselves. All this sent shockwaves across the U.S. because America and the rest of the world rely on China for 70 percent of the world's rare earth supply. In the scramble to find these minerals elsewhere, one place quickly came to mind, Greenland. Not a lot of people live there and not a lot of people have visited there, but there's a very good understanding, mapping of the geology of the island.

7:52As it turns out, that island of 56 ,000 residents is also home to large untapped mineral reserves, gold, diamonds, uranium, and rare earth metals. These natural resources buried under layers of ice now stand to become more accessible due to climate change. And that's where Drew Horn comes in. Drew doesn't own the mine, but he's hoping to be a sort of middleman, someone who can help stand up the mining operation and keep the Trump administration's big-picture vision in focus. A lot of times it's not understood that this isn't just like aerospace and space, like these materials, like germanium, for example.

8:32It's essential for our entire ground defenses as well, too. Before Drew founded the Green Met Minerals Company, He rose up through the ranks of the military. He served in the U.S. Army Special Forces and then spent time working in the Departments of Energy and Defense during President Trump's first term. During that time, he learned a lot about Greenland. I mean, I got to Greenland with him and he goes, cool, I know the first place we're going to have dinner at. And throughout the trip, he would constantly order like the thing on the menu that you probably wouldn't order. We got sushi and part of the sushi were whale and whale skin.

9:08And he's like, oh, I love it. Drew's company, GreenMet, focuses on commodities and minerals. He understood that he could leverage his contacts at the DOE and the DOD to marry investors and projects with potential government help. And he knows how Washington operates. And he's friends with Republicans and Democrats in Washington. He understands Trump world very well. Do you think Trump would care if there wasn't a defense aspect of this? He might care. I don't know if he'd prioritize it as much. When you have that sort of dual focus, that's generally what brings his foreign policy and funding mechanisms combined together in a way that moves the needle.

9:55Indeed, the president's current interest in Greenland does extend beyond rare earths. As ice sheets melt, the Arctic Sea around it could become a busier shipping route and a national security interest for the U.S. America's competitors see that too. Russia has increased its military presence in the Arctic in recent months, and China has also tried to gain a foothold there. It's also where we fly the missiles over if there is a global escalation on the nuclear scale. Despite these arguments in favor of expanding America's presence in Greenland, though, Drew can see that the road ahead will not be easy.

10:35And on his trip with Joe, he was running into one of the biggest hurdles of getting a commercial venture going. That's just getting to the mine itself. So if you're an investor right now, and then you potentially couldn't get out to see the site because we're waiting on fogs and you're hearing the stories about how this happens all the time, Usually that's enough for people to walk away or never come in the first place. But Drew wasn't going to walk away that easily. When the pilots said they'd have to scrap their plan to do a flyover, he and Joe tried to get creative. We're going to talk to the boat guy.

11:10We spent the whole day trying to get a small fishing boat to take us around to where the Tanbury site was. It sounded like a great idea. Is the boat even navigable? I don't know. Like, this is a serious question. Like, with this kind of fall. Until the owner of the tour ships called up his guy in the fjord where we needed to go, which was a two-hour boat ride away. And his guy said, well, the fjord's still frozen in. So even if you got on the boat, we'd never be able to get anywhere close to the site. While they waited, unable to get to Tanbreeze, Joe and Drew took an impromptu boat ride along the coastline of one of Greenland's other fjords.

11:52This mass here is all euteolite, and you can access it right from the water. There, they could see with their own eyes tons and tons of valuable minerals, like euteolite, which contains zirconium, a metal used in nuclear reactors and jet engines. If you're thinking about this from just a layman's knuckle-dragging perspective like mine, you see that red there? That's like pure pater. That's pure heavy rare earth form. But for the Trump administration to turn those minerals into something usable, or to establish a larger U.S. presence in Greenland, it's up against challenges far more daunting than the weather.

12:27That's after the break.

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15:14Technology designed to help doctors spend less time on busy work and more time with their patients. And those prescriptions? Optum is working to bring costs down, save patients money, and make it easier to get refills. Little by little, Optum is helping make healthcare work as one for everyone. Head to business.optum.com to see how. I think we're going to have it. And I think the people want to be with us. President Trump has spoken confidently about the relationship he wants the United States to have with Greenland. As you know, there's 55 ,000 people there that want to be with us. He's talked about buying it or taking it by force.

15:55But in any case, he wants Greenland to become part of the U.S. I don't know really what claim Denmark has to, but it would be a very unfriendly act if they didn't allow that to happen. Denmark does have a claim to Greenland because the island is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It's a self-governing territory with its own parliament and prime minister, but Denmark is still in charge of the island's foreign affairs and defense. And as part of Denmark, Greenland is also a member of NATO, which means the U.S. has had a military presence there for decades. When Joe was in Greenland, he had a chance to ask a few Greenlanders how they react to President Trump's rhetoric.

16:35What did they tell you about what they've heard from the president? Yeah, they don't like that. A number of the people said, yeah, we don't want to be owned by the United States. We don't even like the rhetoric of the president, the way he's kind of saying things. And a number of these people said, I like Donald Trump or I like the U.S. I just don't like the rhetoric that he's using. And, you know, it kind of makes sense, right? If you like, you know, if you suddenly heard the prime minister of Canada saying the United States, we should probably own, you know, the entire Northeast or whatever it is, like you probably wouldn't take it well.

17:12Greenlanders on the whole, they don't want to be taken over. They certainly don't want any sort of military intervention. And to another point, there is a movement of folks who want independence in Greenland. Now, all the major parties say at some point they want true independence. So the idea that, oh, well, the United States can come and take you over to many of them is not that different than their current situation that they want out of. Kuno Fenker, who's a member of Greenland's parliament and vice chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee, summed it up in February. You can't purchase Greenland.

17:45Our right to self-determination is non-negotiable. Tensions have only heated up. In March, Vice President J.D. Vance was scheduled to visit Greenland on what was initially framed as a family excursion. But protesters there questioned the true nature of the visit when it turned into a sizable U.S. delegation. And ultimately, the trip got scaled back from a multi-city visit to a shorter, targeted trip to one very remote U.S. military base. During his time there, Vance took aim at Denmark directly. You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland. You have underinvested in the people of Greenland.

18:25Vance predicted Greenlanders would seek independence from Denmark. And I think that they ultimately will partner with the United States. In response, the Danish foreign minister posted a video on social media. Of course, we are open to criticism. But let me be completely honest. We do not appreciate the tone in which it's being delivered. This is not how you speak to your close allies. In the middle of all this, Greenland elected a new parliament. And the coalition Greenlanders voted in is one that's planning to resist U.S. adventurism. Even as the rhetoric suggests a stalemate, money is beginning to flow from the U.S.

19:04government into projects that look a lot like the ones they're eyeing in Greenland. In early July, MP Materials, the only rare earth producer in the United States, announced it had secured a$1 billion loan from two U.S. banks. The Defense Department promised to invest$400 million in shares of the company. which will make the DOD the largest shareholder in MP materials. Trump has been telegraphing that he wants to invest in projects all over the world to bring rares and all the other stuff back to the United States. But the fact that this is actually written on the page is proof that he's serious about it.

19:46And this is just the first thing. And it's a massive thing. I mean,$400 million equity investment. I talked to a number of sources. I said, does the DOD take ownership stakes in companies like this? And they were like, no. And one of them, who's a former Defense Department source of mine, said, this is a first in class that I can remember. For Americans hoping to develop Greenland, this deal marks a turning point when the government goes from talking the talk to walking the walk on rare earths. if it's willing to invest this much in MP materials. The idea is maybe something like the Tanbreeze mine is next.

20:23Everybody who's been around this, like Drew Horn, have been there in the expectation or the hope that eventually the United States federal government, in some form, will put an investment or give you money to help develop these projects. And it could end up being a bet that'll pay off. As for Drew Horn, he and Joe didn't make it to Tan Breeze on the day they'd planned. The next day was also foggy. But in the afternoon, the fog started to lift. The next three hours were us determining whether or not we would fly out or not. And the pilot at one point goes, yeah, there's an opening right now, but snow clouds and fog could come back in and cover the airport, and we would have to do some sort of emergency landing elsewhere and potentially be stuck for the night.

21:11But what I don't want is being stuck in the middle there. I said, what are the chances that that would happen? And he said, I would say there's maybe about a 70 % chance that we'd get back today. Wow. And I just was like, okay, I'm out. But Drew, no surprise, was in. Joe says Drew was visibly beaming when he touched down after his helicopter ride over Tan Breeze. In all those trips he'd made to Greenland, somehow this was the first time he'd been able to see the site for himself. And the firsthand view came in handy at his Mar-a-Lago meeting when he got back to the States that week. Drew told Joe that being able to describe what Tanbreeze looks like and why he believes his plan there will work completely changed the conversation with the president's advisors.

21:58Within weeks after Drew Horn went to Mar-a-Lago, Tambreeze received a non-binding letter of interest from the United States Export-Import Bank for a 15-year loan to begin work on its pilot project there. Now, the key here is it's just a letter of interest, and that doesn't necessarily mean anything will come of it. But at the very least, it indicates that the project is on the radar of the U.S. government.

22:31This is The Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm David Gura. The show is hosted by me, Sarah Holder, Wan Ha, and Saleha Mosen. Aaron Edwards, David Fox, Eleanor Harrison Dengate, Patty Hirsch, Rachel Lewis-Kriskie, Naomi Ng, Julia Press, Tracy Samuelson, Naomi Shaven, Alex Segura, Julia Weaver, Yang Yang, and Taka Yasuzawa make the show. To get more from The Big Take and unlimited access to all of Bloomberg.com, subscribe today at Bloomberg.com slash podcast offer. Thanks for listening. We'll be back on Monday.

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