Searching for rare earths in Greenland
Arctic regions are disproportionately affected by climate change but they also have the potential to provide resources for the green energy transition. In early June, Adrian Finch worked as a consultant with Amaroq Minerals on their Ilua Rare Earth Pegmatite project in Nunarsuit, an uninhabited region of SW Greenland.
Rare earths in the Arctic are attracting global interest to supply many green energy technologies including wind turbines, electric vehicles and low energy lighting.
Adrian assisted in delimiting the area of the pegmatite zone, visually identifying the mineralogy and targeting areas for drilling later in the season. The Amaroq exploration team reunited Adrian with the University of St Andrews alumnus Rory Changleng who had been to Greenland as part of his dissertation at St Andrews. The project also drew upon material processed by Masters student Aidan Crilly who had analysed the structure of the Nunarsuit Syenite from geophysical survey. Adrian first visited the area in 1988 as part of his PhD and mineralogical analysis of the pegmatite zone is ongoing. There is increased interest in understanding the structure and petrology of the Nunarsuit Complex which has remained largely unexplored since its first description by the Greenland Geological Survey in the 1960s.
Photo: Professor Adrian Finch (St Andrews, left) with St Andrews alumnus Rory Changleng (right) working with Amaroq Minerals on exploration for rare earths in their Ilua Rare Earths Project.
Author: Hayley McLennan. Originally published on the Scottish Arctic Network (ScAN) website. Read the original article here: https://arctic.scot/searching-for-rare-earths-in-greenland/
ScAN also operates as a UArctic Regional Centre; for more information, see ScAN's Regional Centre page.