Green­land: ban on ura­ni­um mining lifted

Green­land had ban­ned ura­ni­um mining poli­ti­cal­ly in 1988. The fear of envi­ron­men­tal dama­ge and awa­re­ness that an int­act envi­ron­ment were the base of the Green­land com­mu­ni­ty were too lar­ge.

Poten­ti­al ura­ni­um mining play­ed a major role in the elec­tions for the par­lia­ment in Nuuk of March 12, 2013. The new prime minis­ter Ale­qa Ham­mond sup­ports mining. Calls for a wide public deba­te or a refe­ren­dum were not heard. After a 5-hour-deba­te, the par­lia­ment of Green­land lifted the ban on Octo­ber 24. From this day onwards, ura­ni­um mining in Green­land is not only a theo­re­ti­cal opti­on, but a future pro­s­pect. For exam­p­le, the Aus­tra­li­an-based com­pa­ny Green­land Mine­rals and Ener­gy Ltd. will have ope­ned some bot­t­le of cham­pa­gne after the par­lia­ment decis­i­on. They are sit­ting on the Kva­nef­jeld-cla­im in sou­thwest Green­land, which is belie­ved to be among­st the top 10 sites for rare earths in the world. It also includes ura­ni­um, which had accor­din­gly been a poli­ti­cal obs­ta­cle also for mining rare earths.

Prime minis­ter Ham­mond was quo­ted say­ing “We can’t stand by as unem­ploy­ment rises and the cost of living goes up, while our eco­no­my remains sta­g­nant. We need to over­turn the ban now”. Cri­tics cla­im that the­re is a real risk of the bene­fits going to for­eign mining com­pa­nies who might also import cheap labour from Asi­an count­ries rather than crea­ting jobs for Green­land­ers while lea­ving Green­land­ers main­ly with big-sca­le envi­ron­men­tal dama­ge to deal with on the long term.

Source: Nunat­sia­qOn­line

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