Mineral Diplomacy in Greenland: Learning from US-European History of Engagement at the Ivittuut Cryolite Mine

[Tom Hale]

Dear all,

Thrilled to share our new open-access perspective in Frontiers in Political Science: “Mineral diplomacy in Greenland: learning from US-European history of engagement at the Ivittuut cryolite mine.”

Why this matters now: Mineral diplomacy often centers on state security goals and corporate deal-making, flattening complex places into supply metrics and geopolitical narratives. This emphasis routinely overshadows local histories, Indigenous governance, and the lived economies around both prospective and legacy mine sites. The result is that community consent, cultural heritage, and long-term environmental stewardship are sidelined, even though they are essential to durable agreements.

In this piece, we try to bring the concept of mineral diplomacy into the academic lexicon by providing the first peer-reviewed definition of the term which hopefully will spur further academic engagements, not just political, with the process of mineral diplomacy and begin to better understand how we can analyze and improve the process to ensure that its methods and practice do not repeat past colonial systems. Ivittuut is an incredible place to study and I have been lucky to visit the site multiple times now.

Ivittuut is not just a historical case study. It is a site of ongoing contestation and narrative building where the subsurface continues to play a role in determining the future of many stakeholders in the region and beyond. Ivittuut has many more stories to share for those who take the time to listen, and it has extremely important value to future consultations and negotiations in Greenland's resource development.

If you are interested in discussing mineral diplomacy, our work in Greenland, or would like to be involved in bringing this concept into future academic pieces, please reach out!

Co-authored with Saleem H. Ali. Supported by NSF Navigating the New Arctic (STAR).

📄 Read the paper: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2025.1584988

Best,

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Thomas N. Hale (LinkedIn)

PhD Candidate | University of Delaware, Geography & Spatial Sciences

Minerals, Materials, and Society Program (MMS)

Executive Director, Minerals in Context

Doctoral Student Fellow, United Nations University INWEH

Fellow, Resources for the Future Critical Minerals Lab

Committee Member, Mineralogical Society of America