A group of billionaires announced Monday they are funding a massive treasure hunt using helicopters and transmitters on the US West Coast Greenlandas climate change accelerates the melting process in the region.
The melting ice sheets create an opportunity for investors and mining companies looking for critical minerals that are highly relevant to industry and can accelerate the transition to green energy.
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The group, which includes the likes of Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates, is betting there are enough essential minerals beneath the surface of the region’s hills and valleys to power hundreds of millions of electric vehicles.
The possibility of finding this type of material from Greenland underscores the irony of the situation: the region is ground zero for the impacts of climate change, but it could also become ground zero for extracting critical minerals to solve the climate crisis.
“We are looking for a deposit that will be the first or second largest nickel and cobalt deposit in the world,” Kurt House, CEO of Kobold Metals, a company that receives financial backing from billionaires, told CNN.
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30 geologists, geophysicists, cooks, drivers and mechanics are already camping in the region where the minerals are found. The teams take soil samples and use transmitterequipped drones and helicopters to measure the underground electromagnetic field and map the underlying rock strata.
With the help of artificial intelligence, the excavation is scheduled to begin in the middle of next year.
The melting ice in Greenland is exposing areas that have been covered by ice for centuries but which could now become a site for potential mineral exploration. According to the Geological Survey of Denmark, the region could be a hotspot rich in coal, copper, gold, zinc and rare earths.
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According to the agency, the local government has conducted several “resource assessments across the icefree country” and “recognizes the country’s potential for diversifying the national economy through mineral mining.”
With billionaires on the move, the thaw in Greenland is causing scientists great concern. It is estimated that the region’s ice sheet could disappear within the next 20 to 30 years.
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