President Donald Trump’s newly announced Greenland security agreement comes just 17 days after a US-based company finalized its purchase of a Greenland mining project that could eventually supply more than one-third of the rare-earth magnet material produced outside China.
On September 1, Greenland Mines, a NASDAQ-listed company aligned with the United States and headquartered in North Carolina, completed its acquisition of the Sarfartoq Rare Earths Project in southwest Greenland.
The company said it intends to produce neodymium-praseodymium, or NdPr, oxide. The compound is essential to magnets used in electric vehicles, wind turbines and a range of defense technologies.
Greenland Mines projects that its output could equal roughly one-third of all NdPr oxide refined outside China, underscoring the growing competition among the US and other major powers for access to strategically important rare-earth minerals.
According to the company, the project carries an estimated value of $2.05 billion.
The preliminary purchase agreement for the Sarfartoq project was announced in May at a valuation of $35 million, highlighting the potential for deeper economic ties between the United States and Greenland.
In a statement posted Friday night, Trump said the United States, Denmark and Greenland had reached an agreement giving Washington “permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland,” which he said would address “ALL of our many US concerns.”
“From now on, no US adversary can EVER have a base in Greenland, have a military presence in Greenland, or make sensitive investments in Greenland, without our express written approval,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The three governments are expected to formally sign the agreement next week during the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Greenland Mines President Bo Møller Stensgaard welcomed the announcement, saying it confirmed the company’s view that Greenland is emerging as one of the world’s most strategically significant regions. He praised the United States, Greenland and Denmark for pursuing a framework intended to improve security, reinforce cooperation among allies and acknowledge Greenland’s importance to the US and the broader Western alliance. Stensgaard added that the region’s strategic value also includes the critical minerals needed for defense, advanced technology and energy security.
Greenland’s government said Saturday that the agreement would not surrender its sovereignty. Greenland remains a semi-autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen referred to the agreement in a Saturday Facebook post, writing that “next week could be a good week” for Greenland, Denmark and the United States.
Rasmussen said he hoped uncertainty would give way to a binding agreement that strengthens security in the Arctic and North Atlantic, while also supporting shared NATO and European security interests and respecting the Kingdom’s “red lines.” He said the pact comes as the Arctic’s security environment is changing.
Greenland Foreign Minister Múte B. Egede told Denmark’s TV2 that he was “pleased that we finally have an end product within reach,” adding, “And it’s about time.”
The governments did not cite any economic provisions in their descriptions of the agreement, and none released the pact’s text.
The parties have also withheld the language detailing the proposed security arrangements in Greenland.
Reuters reported before Trump’s announcement that negotiators were nearing an agreement that could allow parts of his Golden Dome missile-defense system to be stationed on Greenlandic territory.
