Greenland Minerals and Energy, a junior Australian company based in Perth, Western Australia, reported in mid-August 2011 it has finalized an agreement to acquire the 39% of the exploration license covering the northern Ilimaussaq Complex near the southwest tip Greenland that it does not already own. The license area includes the Kvanefjeld rare earth elements-uranium-zinc deposit and the nearby Zones 2 and 3 deposits. The company had a 150-day period from the date of the agreement to finance the acquisition.
Greenland Minerals and Energy describes the Kvanefjeld deposit as hosting the world’s largest JORC-code or NI 43-101 compliant resource of rare earth oxide, with contained metal inventories of 6.6 million mt of rare earth oxide, 350 million lb of U3O8, and 3 billion lb of zinc. Three drill rigs are currently operating on the recently discovered satellite deposits, which are expected to add substantially to the project’s overall resource base.
Initial studies indicate that Kvanefjeld could be developed as a large-scale, multi-commodity mining operation that would have one of the world’s largest rare earth production capacities.
