Greenland’s IA party wants referendum in wake of uranium export laws

Participants at the recent seminar on uranium in Narsaq, Greenland pose questions to experts from Australia and Canada. (PHOTO COURTESY OF IA)

Hilu Tagoona from Nunavut’s anti-uranium organization, Nunavummiut Makituganarningit, speaks at the recent seminar on uranium organized by the IA party in the southern Greenland community of Narsaq. (PHOTO COURTESY OF IA)

This map from Greenland Minerals and Energy Ltd. shows the location of the Kuannersuit or Kvanefjeld rare earths and uranium deposit in southern Greenland.

Greenland’s left-leaning Inuit Ataqatigiit party wants to see a Greenland-wide referendum on uranium mining on the island.

That call came only days after the Greenland and Danish parliaments passed laws, which take effect July 1, to regulate international uranium exports from Greenland.

To rally support for a referendum on uranium mining, the IA held a seminar on uranium last week in the southern community of Narsaq, which has a population of roughly 1,600.

About 25 IA politicians, local sheep farmers, members of the anti-uranium group, Urani Naamik Narsaq, as well as uranium-mining supporters from Narsaq and other political parties attended the June 10 and June 11 event.

The speakers at the seminar included Hilu Tagoona and Jack Hicks from Nunavut’s anti-uranium organization, Nunavummiut Makitagunarningit.

Among other things, these two spoke about the Nunavut Impact Review Board — and its ability to make recommendations on potential mining projects, said an IA release on the seminar.

Last May, the NIRB said no to the Kiggavik uranium mine projectnear Baker Lake because Areva Canada could not provide a definite start date and development schedule for the project or an accurate assessment of future environmental and social impacts.

“We need to have more contact with our kinsmen in Nunavut, also when it comes to uranium. We are not the only ones facing this situation. But in Nunavut they have managed to stop uranium plans. Let us learn from the decision-making they have in Nunavut,” said IA president Sara Olsvig in the release.

Canada’s Gordon Edwards from Physicians for Global Survival came to Narsaq to also talk about how uranium and radioactivity affects people and wildlife.

“In this country we hear mainly from geologists and environmentalists. It is necessary that we increase our knowledge [because] the health risks are also extensive. In Canada, doctors have had a great influence on the resistance to uranium,” Olsvig said.

Instead of uranium mining, the IA would like Greenland to promote other development options, such as agriculture, sheep farming, tourism, arts production and fishing.

“It is necessary that we develop other businesses and ensure growth. We must no longer simply wait,” Olsvig said.

“The future must not be a threat, the future must be an option:” that was the message from the veteran Greenlandic political figure, Josef “Tuusi” Motzfeldt, who ended the seminar with a call for the public’s right to be heard through a referendum on uranium.

“We from the Inuit Ataqatigiit will cherish democracy and push for a referendum,” Olsvig said.

The choice of Narsaq for the seminar was apt: It’s located close to Kuannersuit, called Kvanefjeld in Danish, with one of the world’s largest undeveloped deposits of rare earth elements and uranium.

So-called “heavy” rare earth metals, used to produce heat-resistant magnets found in wind turbines, computer hard drives, rechargeable batteries and electric motors are particular high demand.

Overall, about 30 per cent of the world’s consumption of rare earths is related to cars, a figure that could grow as more consumers shift to hybrid vehicles, which typically contain more than 27 kilograms of rare-earth product.

As for uranium, Kvanefjeld’s 108-million-tonne ore reserve could keep the mine going for 37 years.

Environmental groups in Greenland have said uranium mining could be avoided because rare earths are mined from other places, where uranium is not found along with the rare earths.

The Australia-based Kvanefjeld promoter, Greenland Minerals and Energy, says the new legislation on uranium passed by Greenland and Denmark sets “a solid foundation for the permitting and development of the Kvanefjeld rare earth and uranium project.”

The company is aiming to acquire a mining license in 2017.