US lobbied Greenland rare earths developer Tanbreez not to sell to China
Reuters | January 10, 2025 |
Tanbreez Project orebody. (Image courtesy of Critical Metals.)
US and Danish officials lobbied the developer of Greenland’s largest rare earths deposit last year not to sell its project to Chinese-linked firms, its CEO told Reuters, adding it has been in regular talks with Washington as it reviews funding options to develop the island’s critical minerals.
The move underscores the long-running economic interest US officials have had in the Danish territory, well before US President-elect Donald Trump began musing in recent weeks about acquiring it.
Rare earths have strong magnetic properties that make them critical to high-tech industries ranging from electric vehicles to missile systems. Their necessity has given rise to intense competition between Chinese and Western interests to ease China’s near-total control of their extraction and processing.
Greg Barnes, CEO of privately held Tanbreez Mining, said US officials who visited the project in southern Greenland twice last year had repeatedly shared a message with the cash-strapped company: do not sell the large deposit to a Beijing-linked buyer.
The US State Department was not immediately available to comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The Danish Foreign Ministry declined to comment.
Barnes ultimately sold Tanbreez to New York-based Critical Metals as part of a complex deal that will be complete later this year. Tanbreez aims to mine 500,000 metric tons annually of the crimson rare earths-containing mineral eudialyte as soon as 2026.
“There was a lot of pressure not to sell to China,” Tony Sage, CEO of Critical Metals, told Reuters. Barnes accepted payment of $5 million cash and $211 million in Critical Metals stock for Tanbreez, far less than Chinese firms offered, Sage said.
Barnes said offers from Chinese and other parties were not relevant because they had not clearly outlined how they could pay.
Neither executive disclosed which officials they met with or identified the Chinese companies that made offers.
US interests appear to be changing the game for rare earths projects that had previously not been seen as attractive investments, analysts said.
“While the size of the Tanbreez is significant, the grade and the mineralogy are nothing to be shouted about,” said David Merriman, research director at minerals consultancy Project Blue, which considers the chance of the project reaching commercial production as low, given its complex mineralogy.
The Tanbreez sale to Critical Metals shows that US officials have had more success in Greenland than they have in Africa, where they have been working to offset China’s grip on the mineral-rich central African copper belt.
“While Greenland is not for sale, it is open for business,” Dwayne Menezes, head of London-based think tank Polar Research and Policy Initiative. “It would welcome greater investment from the US.”
A rival Greenland rare earths project from Energy Transition Minerals – which counts China’s Shenghe as its largest shareholder – has stalled amid protracted legal disputes.
Washington talks
Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Jr., arrived in Nuuk on a private visit on Tuesday, a day after the president-elect reiterated his interest in taking control of the island. Denmark has repeatedly said Greenland, a self-governing part of its kingdom, is not for sale.
That visit came two months after a State Department official spent four days in the island’s capital in a push from the outgoing Biden administration to encourage Western mining investment there.
Critical Metals applied for funding to develop a rare earths processing facility from the US Department of Defense last year, but the review process has stalled ahead of Trump taking office on Jan. 20. Sage said he expects talks to resume after Trump’s inauguration and that Trump’s transition team has already contacted him.
“We’re already in discussions with the US to sell (rare earths) to the US and build the processing plant in the US,” he said.
Critical Metals’ third-largest investor is brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald, led by Howard Lutnick, who Trump nominated to run the US Commerce Department. Sage said he has never met or talked to Lutnick, but acknowledged Cantor’s investment is a positive for his company.
The Tanbreez deposit is about 30% heavy rare earths, which are used widely in defense applications. The site also contains gallium, which China imposed export restrictions on last year.
Critical Metals has held supply talks with defense contractor Lockheed Martin and has upcoming talks with RTX and Boeing, Sage said.
Lockheed said it continuously assesses the rare earth supply chain to ensure access to critical materials. RTX and Boeing did not respond to requests for comment.
GreenRoc has applied for an exploitation license to develop a Greenland graphite project and has held funding talks with US officials in the past year, CEO Stefan Bernstein told Reuters.
Neo Performance Materials and Anglo American are also exploring on the island.
(By Melanie Burton, Ernest Scheyder, Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Eric Onstad, Clara Denina, Divya Rajagopal, Daphne Psaledakis and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Veronica Brown, Praveen Menon and Rod Nickel)
Reuters | January 10, 2025 |
Tanbreez Project orebody. (Image courtesy of Critical Metals.)
US and Danish officials lobbied the developer of Greenland’s largest rare earths deposit last year not to sell its project to Chinese-linked firms, its CEO told Reuters, adding it has been in regular talks with Washington as it reviews funding options to develop the island’s critical minerals.
The move underscores the long-running economic interest US officials have had in the Danish territory, well before US President-elect Donald Trump began musing in recent weeks about acquiring it.
Rare earths have strong magnetic properties that make them critical to high-tech industries ranging from electric vehicles to missile systems. Their necessity has given rise to intense competition between Chinese and Western interests to ease China’s near-total control of their extraction and processing.
Greg Barnes, CEO of privately held Tanbreez Mining, said US officials who visited the project in southern Greenland twice last year had repeatedly shared a message with the cash-strapped company: do not sell the large deposit to a Beijing-linked buyer.
The US State Department was not immediately available to comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The Danish Foreign Ministry declined to comment.
Barnes ultimately sold Tanbreez to New York-based Critical Metals as part of a complex deal that will be complete later this year. Tanbreez aims to mine 500,000 metric tons annually of the crimson rare earths-containing mineral eudialyte as soon as 2026.
“There was a lot of pressure not to sell to China,” Tony Sage, CEO of Critical Metals, told Reuters. Barnes accepted payment of $5 million cash and $211 million in Critical Metals stock for Tanbreez, far less than Chinese firms offered, Sage said.
Barnes said offers from Chinese and other parties were not relevant because they had not clearly outlined how they could pay.
Neither executive disclosed which officials they met with or identified the Chinese companies that made offers.
US interests appear to be changing the game for rare earths projects that had previously not been seen as attractive investments, analysts said.
“While the size of the Tanbreez is significant, the grade and the mineralogy are nothing to be shouted about,” said David Merriman, research director at minerals consultancy Project Blue, which considers the chance of the project reaching commercial production as low, given its complex mineralogy.
The Tanbreez sale to Critical Metals shows that US officials have had more success in Greenland than they have in Africa, where they have been working to offset China’s grip on the mineral-rich central African copper belt.
“While Greenland is not for sale, it is open for business,” Dwayne Menezes, head of London-based think tank Polar Research and Policy Initiative. “It would welcome greater investment from the US.”
A rival Greenland rare earths project from Energy Transition Minerals – which counts China’s Shenghe as its largest shareholder – has stalled amid protracted legal disputes.
Washington talks
Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Jr., arrived in Nuuk on a private visit on Tuesday, a day after the president-elect reiterated his interest in taking control of the island. Denmark has repeatedly said Greenland, a self-governing part of its kingdom, is not for sale.
That visit came two months after a State Department official spent four days in the island’s capital in a push from the outgoing Biden administration to encourage Western mining investment there.
Critical Metals applied for funding to develop a rare earths processing facility from the US Department of Defense last year, but the review process has stalled ahead of Trump taking office on Jan. 20. Sage said he expects talks to resume after Trump’s inauguration and that Trump’s transition team has already contacted him.
“We’re already in discussions with the US to sell (rare earths) to the US and build the processing plant in the US,” he said.
Critical Metals’ third-largest investor is brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald, led by Howard Lutnick, who Trump nominated to run the US Commerce Department. Sage said he has never met or talked to Lutnick, but acknowledged Cantor’s investment is a positive for his company.
The Tanbreez deposit is about 30% heavy rare earths, which are used widely in defense applications. The site also contains gallium, which China imposed export restrictions on last year.
Critical Metals has held supply talks with defense contractor Lockheed Martin and has upcoming talks with RTX and Boeing, Sage said.
Lockheed said it continuously assesses the rare earth supply chain to ensure access to critical materials. RTX and Boeing did not respond to requests for comment.
GreenRoc has applied for an exploitation license to develop a Greenland graphite project and has held funding talks with US officials in the past year, CEO Stefan Bernstein told Reuters.
Neo Performance Materials and Anglo American are also exploring on the island.
(By Melanie Burton, Ernest Scheyder, Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Eric Onstad, Clara Denina, Divya Rajagopal, Daphne Psaledakis and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Veronica Brown, Praveen Menon and Rod Nickel)
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Thursday she viewed US President-elect Donald Trump's threats to use military force to seize Greenland as a warning to foreign competitors, such as China, to keep their hands off key strategic concerns close to the US.
Issued on: 09/01/2025
By: FRANCE 24
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni talking with US President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-A-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida on January 4, 2025. © Filippo Attili, AFP
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said Thursday she didn’t believe US President-elect Donald Trump actually intends to use military force to seize control of Greenland or the Panama Canal, saying she read his comments more as a warning to China and other global players to keep their hands off such strategically important interests.
“I think we can exclude that the United States in the coming years will try to use force to annex territory that interests it,” said Meloni, who travelled last weekend to visit Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
She said Trump was simply flagging that he would not let key strategic concerns close to the United States fall under the sway of foreign competitors, such as China.
"My thinking is that these statements are ... a vigorous way to say the United States will not stand by while other major global players move into areas that are of strategic interest to the United States and, I would add, to the West," Meloni said.
She identified increased “Chinese protagonism” in the commercially important Panama Canal and resource-rich Greenland as being behind Trump's warning, and said she interpreted his words as part of a “long-distance debate between great powers".
Watch more Is he serious? Allies wary as Trump threatens Greenland, Panama, Canada
Speaking in London on Thursday, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy also said he did not believe Trump would seize Greenland.
Lammy said that while Trump’s unpredictability and “intensity of rhetoric” were part of his signature style, “we can be guided not entirely by the rhetoric and the language, but by (his) actions as president".
Trump alarmed many Western capitals this week when he refused to rule out using military or economic action to pursue an acquisition of the Panama Canal and Greenland, and also floated the idea of turning Canada into a US state.
Analysts say such rhetoric could embolden America’s enemies by suggesting the US is now OK with countries using force to redraw borders at a time when Russia is pressing forward with its invasion of Ukraine and China is threatening Taiwan, which it claims as its own territory.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Wednesday he did not believe the US would invade the vast Arctic island that has been part of Denmark for over 600 years.
"There is obviously no question that the European Union would let other nations of the world attack its sovereign borders, whoever they are," he told France Inter radio. "We are a strong continent."
Trump's comments further outlined an expansionist agenda, two weeks before he is sworn into office at the January 20 inauguration in Washington.
"If you're asking me whether I think the United States will invade Greenland, my answer is no. But have we entered into a period of time when it is survival of the fittest? Then my answer is yes," Barrot said.
He said the EU should not let itself be intimidated or be overly concerned, but should wake up and strengthen.
(FRANCE 24 with AP and Reuters)
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said Thursday she didn’t believe US President-elect Donald Trump actually intends to use military force to seize control of Greenland or the Panama Canal, saying she read his comments more as a warning to China and other global players to keep their hands off such strategically important interests.
“I think we can exclude that the United States in the coming years will try to use force to annex territory that interests it,” said Meloni, who travelled last weekend to visit Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
She said Trump was simply flagging that he would not let key strategic concerns close to the United States fall under the sway of foreign competitors, such as China.
"My thinking is that these statements are ... a vigorous way to say the United States will not stand by while other major global players move into areas that are of strategic interest to the United States and, I would add, to the West," Meloni said.
She identified increased “Chinese protagonism” in the commercially important Panama Canal and resource-rich Greenland as being behind Trump's warning, and said she interpreted his words as part of a “long-distance debate between great powers".
Watch more Is he serious? Allies wary as Trump threatens Greenland, Panama, Canada
Speaking in London on Thursday, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy also said he did not believe Trump would seize Greenland.
Lammy said that while Trump’s unpredictability and “intensity of rhetoric” were part of his signature style, “we can be guided not entirely by the rhetoric and the language, but by (his) actions as president".
Trump alarmed many Western capitals this week when he refused to rule out using military or economic action to pursue an acquisition of the Panama Canal and Greenland, and also floated the idea of turning Canada into a US state.
Analysts say such rhetoric could embolden America’s enemies by suggesting the US is now OK with countries using force to redraw borders at a time when Russia is pressing forward with its invasion of Ukraine and China is threatening Taiwan, which it claims as its own territory.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Wednesday he did not believe the US would invade the vast Arctic island that has been part of Denmark for over 600 years.
"There is obviously no question that the European Union would let other nations of the world attack its sovereign borders, whoever they are," he told France Inter radio. "We are a strong continent."
Trump's comments further outlined an expansionist agenda, two weeks before he is sworn into office at the January 20 inauguration in Washington.
"If you're asking me whether I think the United States will invade Greenland, my answer is no. But have we entered into a period of time when it is survival of the fittest? Then my answer is yes," Barrot said.
He said the EU should not let itself be intimidated or be overly concerned, but should wake up and strengthen.
(FRANCE 24 with AP and Reuters)
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has stated that Demark is 'open to dialogue' with the US on how the two countries can cooperate on the Arctic region, which includes the Danish-controlled Greenland. His statement comes after US President-elect Donald Trump sparked fears of military engagement in Greenland, which he says he wants the US to control – a claim that was soundly dismissed by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Issued on: 08/01/2025 -
By: FRANCE 24
01:10Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen comments on US President-elect Trump's latest statements about Denmark and Greenland, in Parliament, in Copenhagen, on January 8, 2025. © Liselotte Sabroe, AFP
Denmark is open to talks with the United States to safeguard US interests in the Arctic, after US President-elect Donald Trump refused to rule out military action to take Greenland, the country's foreign minister said Wednesday.
Trump, who takes office on January 20, set off new alarm on Tuesday when he refused to rule out military intervention over the Panama Canal and Greenland, both of which he has said he wants the United States to control.
Trump's comments came as his son Donald Trump Jr. made a private visit to the Arctic island that is an autonomous Danish territory.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters that the Danish Realm – which includes Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands – is "open to a dialogue with the Americans on how we can cooperate, possibly even more closely than we already do, to ensure that American ambitions are fulfilled".
Lokke Rasmussen noted that the United States and NATO had "legitimate" interests in the region because of international events.
"In conjunction with the melting of the Arctic and new shipping lanes opening up, we are unfortunately also seeing an increase in great power rivalry. We see a Russia that is arming itself. We see a China that is also starting to take an interest," the foreign minister said.
The top diplomat urged calm amid the new frenzy.
"I try to deal with the realities, and I think we should all do ourselves a favour by getting our heart rate down a bit," he said.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told TV2 television on Tuesday she did not believe Trump's pursuit of Greenland would ever include military force.
"I don't have the fantasy to imagine that it'll ever get to that," she said, calling for cool heads to prevail.
Blinken dismisses Trump comments
Denmark's comments struck a noticibly more conciliatory tone than those from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who spoke in Paris on Wednesday.
"The idea expressed about Greenland is obviously not a good one," Blinken told reporters at a press conference in Paris with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, adding that it was "obviously not going to happen".
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)
Denmark is open to talks with the United States to safeguard US interests in the Arctic, after US President-elect Donald Trump refused to rule out military action to take Greenland, the country's foreign minister said Wednesday.
Trump, who takes office on January 20, set off new alarm on Tuesday when he refused to rule out military intervention over the Panama Canal and Greenland, both of which he has said he wants the United States to control.
Trump's comments came as his son Donald Trump Jr. made a private visit to the Arctic island that is an autonomous Danish territory.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters that the Danish Realm – which includes Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands – is "open to a dialogue with the Americans on how we can cooperate, possibly even more closely than we already do, to ensure that American ambitions are fulfilled".
Lokke Rasmussen noted that the United States and NATO had "legitimate" interests in the region because of international events.
"In conjunction with the melting of the Arctic and new shipping lanes opening up, we are unfortunately also seeing an increase in great power rivalry. We see a Russia that is arming itself. We see a China that is also starting to take an interest," the foreign minister said.
The top diplomat urged calm amid the new frenzy.
"I try to deal with the realities, and I think we should all do ourselves a favour by getting our heart rate down a bit," he said.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told TV2 television on Tuesday she did not believe Trump's pursuit of Greenland would ever include military force.
"I don't have the fantasy to imagine that it'll ever get to that," she said, calling for cool heads to prevail.
Blinken dismisses Trump comments
Denmark's comments struck a noticibly more conciliatory tone than those from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who spoke in Paris on Wednesday.
"The idea expressed about Greenland is obviously not a good one," Blinken told reporters at a press conference in Paris with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, adding that it was "obviously not going to happen".
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)
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