Start talking about Greenland’s Citronen mining project, and you may find yourself using a number of superlatives. Located at 83° North, if established, it will be the world’s northernmost mine, for example. And, given its size, it has the potential become one of the world’s largest sources of zinc for at least 14 years. But, perhaps most tellingly, even those that have chosen to get involved with the project admit it is one of the most complicated mining operations ever attempted.
The first challenge for the mine is getting things there: everything must be flown in. The 240km overland route from Station Nord, a Danish military base that is itself considered to be wildly remote, has been attempted, but the journey through roadless terrain is both too expensive and time-consuming to make it a feasible option for the operation’s owner, Ironbark Zinc, an Australian-listed firm. Instead, men and materiel to build and operate a mine would be flown in from Svalbard, which would also serve as its logistical hub.
The good news is that remote locations are not unique, and Svalbard is familiar territory for LNS, the firm that Ironbark Zinc reached a tentative agreement with on 23 May to provide construction and logistics services, as well as potentially to become an investor. The bigger challenge — indeed the biggest — will be getting what the mine produces to wherever it needs to go: Citronen Fjord, where the mining site is located, is navigable for just one or two months a year.
Ironbark Zinc reckons this will be enough time for it to ship out the 380,000 tons of zinc concentrate — amounting to six shiploads — it expects to produce each year. Other mines that are only reachable during an ice-free season do this successfully, but no ship has yet to reach the Citronen mining site: the first and only time Ironbark Zinc tried to do so, in 2018, the ice-breaking cargo vessel making the voyage, the largest of its sort, had to stop short of entering the fjord system. Officially, this was because it did not have permission to enter, and the fjord itself was reportedly ice-free when the ship arrived there. That, Ironbark argues, proves its plan is feasible.
Ironbark had hoped to begin construction of the mine in 2019, and for operations to begin the next year. Because Ironbark Zinc still does not have all of the funding it will take to get the mine off the ground, construction is now slated to begin in 2023, and operations in 2024. Ironbark is look to raise the required funding this year, and has identified “a range of interested parties drawn from the fields of base metals mining, refining and trading and financial investment”. Some of them will be flown in to the mining site in July to get a first-hand view.
They may also be encouraged by the tentative approval Ironbark Zinc received from EXIM Bank, America’s export credit agency, for a $657 million (€611 million) loan that has widely been seen as a signal that Citronen is a safe bet (and that America is keen to keep its product out of Chinese hands). It has not hurt that Ironbark Zinc already has two customers lined up to take its product. One of them, Glencore, is the world’s largest producer of zinc.
Kevin McGwin, PolarJournal
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