A cold gold rush? The race for the Arctic’s critical minerals is heating up

Sam Meredith – CNBC.com

A global scramble to exploit the Arctic’s untapped resources appears to be kicking into overdrive.

In a push to break China’s mineral dominance, countries around the world are increasingly turning to the thawing and sparsely populated northern polar region, seeking to seize its raw materials and benefit from new commercial trade routes.

U.S. President Donald Trump, for example, has repeatedly underscored the importance of Greenland, a vast Arctic territory, calling U.S. ownership of the island an “absolute necessity” for economic and national security reasons.