Frustrated director of Kuannersuit company: We want dialogue about the project

Although there are more than 14,000 kilometers between us, Daniel Mamadou's dog's regular snoring in the basket at the Melbourne office clearly permeates the Teams connection, and is a constant soundtrack throughout the interview.

Sermitsiaq has been given the opportunity to ask the director of Energy Transition Minerals a number of questions about both their upcoming lawsuit against the self-government, the claim for compensation and their project in Kuannersuit, which both the local population in Narsaq and most politicians have expressed concern and criticism of.

However, the company maintains that they have the right to have a process carried out towards a mining license, and that they are also ready to change the project so that it better meets local concerns, such as access via the port of Narsaq or pollution from the mine waste.

Ready to change the project

The project is in principle completely ready to move from the exploration stage to extraction, but the project has been unjustifiably put on hold as a result of the Uranium Act from 2021, says Daniel Mamadou, who is annoyed that the authorities do not want to enter into a dialogue with the company about whether the project can be changed so that it better meets local concerns. This applies, for example, to the location of the waste depot, which in the original plan is to be in Lake Taseq, but which, according to Daniel Mamadou, can be moved to another area.

The same goes for the infrastructure, which does not necessarily have to be via the existing port in Narsaq.

Finally, the director assures that economics is not the main priority in the project, and that the company is willing to accept higher costs if it can solve the environmental and social concerns.

– The original plan is to use the existing port facilities and expand them, but we do not rule out building completely new infrastructure if it proves more appropriate, says Daniel Mamadou, who is frustrated that the company cannot even get a dialogue started with the authorities about possible solutions.

– Why don't we sit down and talk about alternative options? We experience that the door is closed and that there is no reason to discuss anything whatsoever.

All risks can be handled

According to Daniel Mamadou, the company can guarantee that the development and post-processing of rare earth metals, including uranium and the potential radioactive contamination, will take place without risks to people and the environment:

– We can guarantee project development and recovery in absolute top class, and we believe that the project can be exploited safely and that all risks can be managed.

According to the company, the project has been thoroughly investigated, and the occurrence of rare earths is large enough for at least 35 years of production.

– Our priority is to ensure the success of the project, and we believe that it can bring significant benefits to Greenland, says Daniel Mamadou, who has a background in the financial sector in Singapore, where he, among other things, has previously worked with investments in raw materials projects.

Collaboration with the USA

Recently, Energy Transition Minerals announced that they would focus more on the USA than on China, and that the Chinese investor Shenghe Resources' share had been significantly reduced.

– We have carried out several capital increases in which Shenghe Resources has not participated, and therefore their share is now 5.9 percent. Greenland has already announced that no Chinese company will be able to operate in the country, so it makes sense for us to focus on the US rather than China, says Daniel Mamadou, adding:

– The US capital markets are twice as large as the rest of the world combined. Our approach is not unique. Many other companies, especially in mining and exploration, follow exactly the same approach, which is also motivated by the fact that the US, like Europe, has a political desire to improve the supply chains of critical metals.

According to the director, the engagement with the US lobbying firm Ballard Partners and the agreement with the investment bank Cohen & Capitol Market are an expression of the company's desire to get to know the US market better. The US is further ahead than Europe in terms of rare earth mining, among other things because of the Mountain Pass raw material project in California, which originally – like the Kuannersuit project – had a large Chinese ownership stake, which has been diluted in the past year as a result of share expansions.

– It is not about producing the cheapest rare earth metals, because China can do that. But about creating independent and robust supply chains, says Daniel Mamadou.

The compensation claim

It has been mentioned several times in the media that Energy Transition Minerals is seeking 76 billion kroner in compensation if they cannot get an extraction license for Kuannersuit. But Daniel Mamadou denies this.

– We have never said that we are seeking 76 billion kroner in compensation. But we had an independent evaluation prepared of what our project would be worth in production after we were told at a meeting with the mineral resources authorities that a new uranium law had been passed and that we should just pack our things and disappear. We included that figure to highlight the relevance of our project from both an economic and a strategic perspective. But it is politicians and journalists who have interpreted the amount as an expression of a possible compensation amount. Not us.

– Our focus is much more on how we can implement the project. We are flexible. We are a private sector, so we can adapt and adjust.

The uranium issue

Energy Transition Minerals has always believed that the uranium law was introduced for political reasons to target the project in Narsaq with the introduction of a maximum limit of 100 ppm uranium per 1 tonne of ore.

In Kuannersuit, the uranium content is approximately 200-400 ppm uranium per 1 ton of ore.

Daniel Mamadou maintains that the issue is not about the uranium content in the ore, but about the risks of exposure over time. And that the company's proposal for environmental protection is based on the Australian and Canadian standards, which the director considers to be among the highest in the world.

– A lot of ink has been spilled on this issue. Everyone knows that the harmfulness of uranium cannot be measured in terms of how much it constitutes in the ore. What is decisive is the amount of exposure over time. After all, I think that the minister [Naaja H. Nathanielsen, ed.] himself was the first to say that the law was introduced for political reasons. So let's find a political solution, says Daniel Mamadou.