Take A Look Inside Greenland's Only Fully Operational Mine, Where Miners Live Half The Year And Brave Arctic Conditions

Mining facilities at Lumina.

Mark Adam Miller

• Greenland features numerous mineral deposits, but mining there poses many challenges.
• Lumina, Greenland's sole fully operational mine, extracts anorthosite in tough Arctic conditions.
• Lumina's year-round operations serve as a blueprint for advancing Greenland's mining industry.

Greenland is believed to hold significant deposits of critical raw materials, including valuable rare-earth elements. Mining them, however, is another story.

Harsh Arctic conditions, limited infrastructure, and strict environmental regulations are among the many factors that make mining in Greenland so difficult and costly.

In fact, Greenland has more than 1,200 identified mineral sites, but only one fully operational mine — Lumina Sustainable Materials in Western Greenland.

Lumina extracts anorthosite, which is not a rare-earth metal, but the mine's ability to function year-round serves as a blueprint for advancing Greenland's mining operations.

For now, China produces most of the world's rare earths, a group of 17 metals essential for building electronics and military equipment such as fighter jets and missiles.

While President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to acquire Greenland for its strategic Arctic location to bolster national and international security, Greenland's untapped supply of rare earths would also prove valuable to US interests.

However, just because those resources are there doesn't mean they're readily extractable.

Business Insider visited Lumina in June to explore why Greenland remains such a difficult place to mine — and what life is like for miners in one of the toughest environments on Earth.

See our trip to Greenland in the video below. Keep reading for an inside look at Lumina.