Greenland Minerals said today it received a draft decision from the Greenland government indicating that the company's application for an exploitation licence for the Kvanefjeld rare earth project has been rejected.

Kvanefjeld is located in southern Greenland. To date over 1 billion tonnes of mineral resources (JORC-compliant) have been delineated in the project area, across three different zones – Kvanefjeld, Sørensen and Zone 3. The area has shipping access.

"According to the draft decision, the company's exploitation licence application cannot be granted because it would involve exploitation of an ore body that contains more than 100 ppm of uranium," wrote the company in a news release, noting that the threshold that was introduced in Greenland Parliament Act No. 20 of 1 December 2021 to ban uranium prospecting, exploration and exploitation.

Rare earth prices have risen due to energy transition. This month Rare earth miner Lynas reported that rare earth prices were between 70 and 80% higher than a year ago. In the longer term, global demand for NdFeB magnets is forecast to grow from 130,000 tonnes of NdFeB magnets consumed in 2020 to 265,000 tonnes in 2030, Lynas said.

Greenland Minerals intends to file an objection to the decision.

"The company has been given four weeks to submit a response to the draft decision. The Government has indicated that, after the consultation process on the draft decision, it intends to proceed to make a final decision on the Company's exploitation licence application. The company will be working through the details of the draft decision and will be lodging an objection based on the grounds of the draft decision. It is the company’s position that, in accordance with general principles of law, the draft decision and any subsequent final decision should have no lawful bearing on the arbitration process.

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