The Australian mining company Energy Transition Minerals (ETM) has hired former Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod and former top diplomat Friis Arne Petersen for advisory positions.
This comes as the company finds itself in the middle of a dispute with Greenland over whether it should be allowed to establish a mine to extract rare earths.
Since 2007, the company had had permission to investigate the possibilities of establishing a mine at Kvanefjeld in southern Greenland.
The mine became the main theme of the election to the Greenland parliament, Inatsisartut, in 2021. After the election, the new Greenlandic government decided to ban the extraction of radioactive uranium, and thus the mining project was shelved. This led the company to file a claim for damages of 80 billion kroner against the Greenlandic government.
It was recently decided that the case cannot be conducted as an arbitration case. An arbitration case is an option for private dispute resolution, where the parties can have a case decided by a private arbitration court instead of by a regular court.
Following the decision from the arbitration court, the compensation case must now be run through the courts, where the mining company has filed cases at the Greenland High Court and the Copenhagen City Court.
Kofod: Mining project will create value for Greenland
Jeppe Kofod says in a press release about his new position that the mining project has the opportunity to "create lasting value for Greenland" by, for example, creating jobs.
- But it requires trust and a common understanding of how it should happen. I believe that there is a way forward that respects both local concerns and broader societal interests.
- I want to contribute to an open and responsible dialogue that can lead to long-term solutions for the benefit of Greenland, he says.
Both the Greenlandic government and the mining company consider their chances to be good when the courts give their opinion.
/ritzau/
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