Five Eyes urged to forge Greenland ties

The intelligence sharing alliance known as Five Eyes should forge ties with Greenland to boost supplies of critical minerals and cut dependence on China, a think tank says.

Greenland has huge deposits of rare earths, a set of 17 minerals used in myriad applications from electric vehicles to defence goods, a report by the London-based Polar Research and Policy Initiative says.

China controls about 90 per cent of the supply of rare earths.

The Five Eyes grouping of Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, should expand its framework to include "resource intelligence, technical collaboration, major project financing and supply chain integration for minerals and materials critically important to national and economic security", the report says.

It is natural for the Five Eyes to target Greenland for its mining and rare earth potential because two thirds of the 41 licence holders in Greenland's mining sector were linked to Britain, Canada and Australia, the report says.

"Greenland's vast critical minerals reserves and the sheer number of British, Canadian and Australian companies operating in Greenland make it a new frontier for Five Eyes," says the report, made available to Reuters before its release on Friday.

US President Joe Biden's administration said last month it will review key US supplies, including rare earths, to ensure other countries cannot weaponise them against the United States.

Two Australia-based mining companies are racing for approval for mines in Greenland to dig into what the US Geological Survey calls the world's biggest undeveloped deposits of rare earth metals.