Greenland premier on information tour

In its quest for North American exploration investment, the Greenland Home Rule government recently enlisted the aid of the island’s top elected official.

Premier Lars Emil Johansen went on the road to London and New York to speak to private gatherings of mining executives and brokers. At each stop he reviewed the policy changes his government, in concert with Danish authorities, have made to pave the way for mine exploration in Greenland. These changes include:

— An effective corporate tax rate of 35% and no royalties or production fees; companies can choose the rate of asset writedown;

— Post-production back-in rights by the state have been abolished; and — A “single-window” regulatory approach.

In an interview with The Northern Miner in the Danish Consul General’s private residence on Fifth Avenue, where about 35 people convened, Johansen said that “in both Greenland and Denmark, we are in full agreement over the new regulations.”

(Greenland’s Home Rule legislature governs all areas except foreign policy, defence, justice and health services, which are the preserve of the Danish parliament. Mining is overseen by a joint Danish-Greenlandic committee.) Could the premier guarantee that in the future, the rules might not change again, but for the worse? (Papua New Guinea, for example, recently made public noises about unilaterally increasing its stake in Placer Dome’s Porgera mine.)

“There is no guarantee,” Johansen said. “But you have to look at the political realities. . . . This is the way we (both Greenland and Denmark) have decided to proceed. Nothing at the moment tends to show that the two governments would change their minds.”

He also pointed out that certain legal protections are spelled out in exploration permits and that his island formerly had successful, privately owned mines.

Greenland boasted three producers: a cryolite mine, the Black Angel lead-zinc mine (a former profitable Cominco producer) and another lead-zinc producer on the east side of the island. It now has none, although it does boast plenty of prospective ground.

The mine closures and the alarming decline of Greenland’s mainstay fishery industry persuaded Greenlandic and Danish authorities to focus on mine investment and tourism.