Massive treasure hunt in progress as ice vanishes in Greenland

As the climate crisis is melting Greenland down at an unprecedented rate, it is creating an opportunity for investors and mining companies who are searching for a trove of critical minerals capable of powering the green energy transition, according to CNN.
Billionaires, including Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates are betting that below the surface of the hills and valleys on Greenland's Disko Island and Nuussuaq Peninsula there are enough critical minerals to power hundreds of millions of electric vehicles. "We are looking for a deposit that will be the first- or second-largest most significant nickel and cobalt deposit in the world," Kurt House, CEO of Kobold Metals.
The Arctic's disappearing ice on land and in the ocean highlights a unique dichotomy: Greenland is ground zero for the impacts of climate change, but it could also become ground zero for sourcing the metals needed to power the solution to the crisis.
The billionaire club is financially backing Kobold Metals, a mineral exploration company and California-based startup. Kobold is partnered with Bluejay Mining to find the rare and precious metals in Greenland that are necessary to build electric vehicles and massive batteries to store renewable energy.
Crews are taking soil samples, flying drones and helicopters with transmitters to measure the electromagnetic field of the subsurface and map the layers of rock below. They're using artificial intelligence to analyze the data to pinpoint exactly where to drill as early as next summer. Because climate change is making ice-free periods in the sea longer, teams are able to ship in heavy equipment and ship out metals out to the global market more easily.
Melting land ice is exposing land that has been buried under ice for centuries to millennia - but could now become a potential site for mineral exploration. Greenland could be a hot spot for coal, copper, gold, rare-earth elements and zinc, according to the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. The government of Greenland has done several ‘resource assessments throughout the ice-free land’ and the government ‘recognizes the country's potential to diversify the national economy through mineral extraction.’

Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished