00:00Not everybody agrees, I've read several articles, not everybody agrees that Greenland is actually a mining gem.
00:08Talk to us about the potential. Can you quantify what can be found there in terms of resources?
00:14Well, Greenland is obviously a huge island.
00:18What I can speak for is definitely our own project, which is the largest rare earth project in terms of size and resources.
00:26We proved up in excess of a billion tons of mineral, and that was exploring basically less than a fifth of the mining area or the licensed area for our project.
00:39And so that's essentially a strong foundation for a world-class asset that could last centuries, really.
00:46Some suggest that it is commercially challenging to mine in Greenland. Is it more challenging than anywhere else?
00:55No, absolutely not. And that's perhaps one perspective.
00:59But from our own side, what we've done is we've essentially done the relevant feasibility studies that have established that this project is extremely valuable.
01:09And that's the reason why we spent more than $150 million over the past decade.
01:14And we will continue to focus on the exploration and find a path to the development of this asset.
01:20No secret that President Trump is interested in acquiring Greenland.
01:24And we had a guest today just talking about how she thinks Trump will do whatever it takes to acquire Greenland.
01:31What do you make of the prospects of the U.S. running Greenland?
01:35Well, we are miners. We're not politicians.
01:37So I can't really have a view on that.
01:41From our perspective, really, the focus is bringing this resource into the supply chain.
01:46We're a Western-aligned platform that brings critical minerals to the supply chain, to the rest of the world.
01:55And that's our focus.
01:57As a big player in Greenland, have you been approached perhaps by the Trump administration or officials from the White House showing any interest in your company?
02:05We continuously receive approaches not just only from the White House, but also from other parties that includes Europe, that includes China, that includes international investors.
02:20When was the latest approach from the White House or the U.S. administration?
02:23Just as recently as last week.
02:25So might a Greenland that is managed by the U.S. bring benefits?
02:34I'm just wondering, because a mining project of yours got shelved back in 2021 because of some concerns of a uranium.
02:45Might the U.S. adopt a lighter touch when it comes to regulation over things like the environment?
02:53I'm not too sure.
02:55When you look at environmental regulation in the West, including in the United States and in Greenland, the standards are very, very high.
03:01I think what is important to realize is that just because policy shifts in Greenland and policy has shifted at times in favor as well as against our project, the strategic asset and its strategic nature remains.
03:16The asset lies there.
03:17It doesn't move.
03:18And so projects of this type tend to have very long cycle and generally markets tend to misprice long cycle optionality at the beginning until there's a shift in the situation, which is what we're facing right now.
03:31What could be improved in Greenland for businesses like yours?
03:38Well, first of all, the Act 20, which is basically a piece of legislation that has been arbitrarily put in place to stop our project and also to have a retroactive impact on licensing.
03:53And I think that should be kind of reformed in some shape or form or flexibilized.
04:00Because we need to take into account the concerns of citizens, absolutely.
04:05But this is a project that has proven to be safe and has been recommended by the highest instances, not just at a global level, but also internal level in Greenland over the years.
04:15So we are facing a political blockage.
04:19We are blocked by politics, not by geology or safety.
04:24Rare earths is such a huge issue across the world for governments, for companies as well.
04:32And given that China recently weaponized rare earth again, we've seen a surge in rare earth stocks, including yours.
04:41Do you get a sense that perhaps there's a bubble or there's froth in the rare earth stocks?
04:49Absolutely not.
04:50I think what there is, is there is a repricing in the market.
04:55And what is happening is that the supply chains for critical minerals like rare earth are now not priced just only based on cost, but more importantly on security of supply.
05:06And what the West is realizing and taking steps towards now is the fact that the tough projects need to be funded.
05:16China has been doing that for quite a while now.
05:19And we are now realizing that we also need to kind of go and not just consider taking into account what the costs are, but also the security of supply that comes with owning your own supply chain, having a project in a specific jurisdiction.
05:35And so everything is being repriced according to not just cost, but also jurisdiction, execution risk and local.
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