Mineral Strategy 2009
It is more than five years since The Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum’s Mineral Strategy 2004 was published. It is therefore natural to evaluate whether the objective of increased exploration activity has been met. Also, the strategy calls for an update to retain industry interest.
Mineral Strategy 2004 focused on the identification of geological environments as well as gold and diamonds and was a great success as new occurrences of gold were found in greenstone belts and the understanding of the diamond potential in Greenland was enhanced.
In addition, from 2004 – 2009 the number of granted exploration licences grew very significantly.
The increasing exploration efforts in recent years have comprised the implementation of cost intensive projects such as the Malmbjerg project in East Greenland, the eudialite project in South Greenland, the Isua project in the Nuuk region, West Greenland, the Citronen Fjord project in North Greenland, the dia- mond project at Kangerlussuaq, West Greenland and the gold-palladium project in the Kangerlussuaq Skaergaard intrusion, East Greenland. In other words, increased global activity in the exploration industry has also made its mark on Greenland in the form of a growing number of exploration licences.
Thus, a number of the objectives set out in Mineral Strategy 2004 have been realised.
It is against this background that The Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum wishes to present a new mine- ral strategy with new focus areas/themes that will be effective from 2009. Greenland will be recognised as an attractive exploration area. A reasonable proportion of the profits generated by extraction should be ensured for society. Licence terms must be reasonable for both small and large companies, robust to fluctuating economic trends and simple and easy to administer for companies and authorities. It must be possible to implement the strategy within the framework of a new mineral agreement between Greenland and Denmark. For many years, there has been broad political agreement in Greenland that efforts should be made to develop the mineral sector into a principal industry contributing positively to economic development and to the creation of new jobs. This goal is an essential element of the wish for long-term economic develop- ment in Greenland, including the development of business sectors alternative to fisheries. The development of the mineral resource sector needs to take place in a manner that will benefit the Greenlandic society as much as possible. Society must be secured a fair proportion of the value gained from extraction. Local insight and knowledge of the activiti- es must be acquired to ensure that local labour and local enterprises are used to the greatest possible extent. All mineral resource activities are subject to the specific political condition that they shall be carried out properly in terms of health, safety and the environ- ment. The Arctic environment is very vulnerable, and Greenlandic industry and Greenlandic culture are to a great extent linked to nature and the environment.
The objectives of The Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum’s Mineral Strategy 2009 are as follows:
Download the Mineral Strategy 2009
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