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　　Climate change has made exploration and mining in Greenland easier and more convenient.

　　The climate crisis is melting Greenland faster than ever, but it is presenting a rare treasure hunt for investors and mining companies.

　　According to foreign media reports, with the funding of billionaires including Amazon founder Bezos, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio (Ray Dalio), the US technology company KoBold Metals (KoBold Metals) ) is looking in Greenland for rare metals and minerals, such as nickel and cobalt, that could be used to make electric vehicle batteries.

　　Cobble Metals said it was exploring what could be the world's first or second largest nickel and cobalt deposits, potentially capable of powering 100 million electric vehicles.

　　Nickel and cobalt are two metals that have become an important part of the global transition to greener economic life. This is partly reflected in the surge in its price.

　　According to World Bank data, in July 2020, the prices of nickel and cobalt per ton were about US$13,000 and US$29,000 respectively, and in August this year, they had risen to over US$21,000 and US$72,000 per ton respectively, an increase of about 60% and 150% respectively.

　　Wu Di, an analyst at the Climate Change and Energy Transition Project of the Energy Research Institute of Peking University, told Yicai.com that the new energy manufacturing industry has a large demand for mineral resources such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and graphite. Due to the large-scale development of new energy sources, the global demand for mineral resources per unit of newly installed power generation capacity has risen by 50% since 2010. Driven by the energy transition and the goal of addressing climate change, countries will face supply chain security issues brought about by new energy manufacturing while gradually reducing oil and gas supply security risks.

　　"Increasing the ability to ensure the security of supply of key mineral resources is crucial to building a new power system with new energy as the main body." Wu Di said.

　　Exploring Greenland could help electrify the world

　　Greenland could be a hotspot for coal, copper, gold, rare earth elements and zinc, according to the Geological Survey Institute (GEUS) of Denmark and Greenland.

　　Kurt House, chief executive of Kurt Metals, said a "tremendous amount" of metal was also needed to electrify the global car fleet. According to its calculations, using estimates from the International Energy Agency (IEA), the necessary exploration for cobalt, nickel, lithium, copper and rare earth elements is worth about $10 trillion at current prices.

　　In 2019, Cobble Metals received backing from Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley's top venture capital firms, and further funding from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, founded by Bill Gates. financial support. In addition to the billionaires mentioned above, investors in the Breakthrough Energy Fund include Bloomberg founder Michael Bloomberg, Carlyle Investment Rubenstein (David Rubenstein), LinkedIn co-founder Hoffman (Reid Hoffman) et al.

　　According to US media reports, even the largest mining companies tend to spend more money where minerals are already known to exist, which has a higher chance of success. But thanks to artificial intelligence, Cobb Metals' exploration efforts in Greenland this summer began with aerial surveys, using a variety of techniques to measure the density, magnetism and conductivity of some larger areas of land, as well as to conduct electrical measurements on rocks. measurement and geochemical analysis. Its proprietary machine-learning algorithms process the data on a daily basis, drawing the results into a pixelated atlas of predictions, helping geologists on the ground target exploration and sampling for the next day, saving costs.

　　The technology should solve the "sequential planning problem" that has long plagued mining exploration efforts, said Jef Caers, director of Stanford University's Center for Earth Resource Prediction. He explained that mining companies generally use drilling methods to determine whether to continue or stop, but with algorithmic technology, Cobb Metals can quickly redeploy, reducing land impact and financial expenditure.

　　Disappearing ice caps make exploration easier

　　Bo Møller Stensgaard, chief executive of Bluejay Mining, which is exploring with Cobb Metals, said it was worrying to see the consequences and impacts of climate change on Greenland, but climate change also Makes exploration and mining in Greenland easier and more convenient.

　　With climate change making ice-free periods longer at sea, teams are able to get heavy equipment in and metals out for easier access to global markets, Stengard said.

　　When land ice melts, it exposes land buried under the ice for hundreds to thousands of years and could be a potential site for mineral exploration. Mike Sfraga, chairman of the U.S. Arctic Research Council, said that as this trend continues, there will be more land to be set foot on in the future, some of which may have the potential for mineral development.

　　Sfraga added that the Greenlandic government's pro-mining stance is not without regard to the environment, which is at the heart of Greenlandic culture and livelihoods. Greenland's government supports the responsible, sustainable and economically viable development of its natural resources, including the extraction of a wide range of minerals, he said. And these key minerals will "provide some of the solutions to these challenges posed by the climate crisis".

　　But it cannot be ignored that the disappearance of Greenland's ice sheet has caused scientists to worry. Nathan Kurtz, a NASA scientist who studies sea ice, predicts that Arctic sea ice may disappear within 20 to 30 years.