Beneath its desolate, icy expanse, Greenland holds some of the world’s biggest untapped reserves of the raw minerals used to make everything from smartphones and electric cars to F-35 Lightning II jet fighters.

Good luck getting them out of the ground.

President-elect Donald Trump has said the U.S. needs Greenland for national security. Part of the island’s allure are its rare earths, metals and other raw materials. America now mostly relies on China for its supplies of some key materials, and Beijing could wield its access to them as a weapon in a trade war.

But Greenland’s harsh climate, hazardous shipping, limited infrastructure and tiny local workforce have for years left a promised gold rush frozen in its tracks.

Increasing geopolitical competition, rising need for rare elements and a warming climate are now fueling hopes for the development of a mining industry on Greenland . Any significant extraction, though, is still years away, experts and industry participants say.

“Greenland is starting to become much more attractive to those who are hoping to potentially break the very strong influence of China in rare earth exports, and climate change helps with some of the issues,” said Marc Lanteigne , professor at the University of Tromsø and an adjunct lecturer at the University of Greenland.


“What does not change, though, is the overall conditions, including a lack of infrastructure and labor, that make mining considerably challenging and considerably expensive,” he said. “There have been many lofty plans but very little in the way of actual developments.”

Since winning the election, Trump has raised the idea of taking control of Greenland from Denmark and threatened to hit Denmark with tariffs if it doesn’t cooperate. Most recently, the president-elect has refused to rule out the use of force to take the island, the world’s largest. Officials in Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, and Denmark, a U.S. ally and fellow North Atlantic Treaty Organization member, have rejected the idea of the island becoming part of the U.S.

Local officials, however, have welcomed increased U.S. investment in mining in particular. The island has recently stepped up its push for independence from Denmark, which maintains some control over the island, including its foreign policy.

On Monday, Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte Egede said the island didn’t want to be American. However, Egede added that he wanted to pursue deeper collaboration with the U.S. on defense, and welcomed U.S. investment in Greenland’s mining industry.

The share prices of Greenland-focused mining companies shot up in the wake of Trump’s remarks.

Mira Kleist , head of Greenland practice at advisory firm Kaya Partners, said she had been fielding increased interest from companies and investors in mining. She attributes the interest to geopolitical developments and advancing climate change, which could make it easier to operate as the land becomes free from ice for longer parts of the year. The retreating ice could also reveal new mineral-rich areas as it exposes bedrock that has lain icebound for millennia.

Still, despite all the interest in Greenland’s potential, the island has two active mines, and they aren’t involved in the extraction of critical minerals. The territory has extended around 100 active mining licenses, mostly for exploration, with some further along.

High startup costs are a particular issue: Any mine would have to be built from scratch in Greenland’s rugged terrain, with its deep fjords and ice sheets that can be up to a mile thick. The island doesn’t have roads between settlements, while the floating sea ice off the coast makes shipping treacherous. The island’s population of around 57,000 people likely means importing foreign workers.

Greenland’s decision to ban mining for uranium in recent years also spooked some investors, who want to see successful projects come to fruition before plowing in financing.

“There has always been a lot of hype, a lot of talk of the potential there,” said Flemming Getreuer Christiansen , a geoscience consultant with decades of experience in the region. “Trump’s interest may wake up interest now, but the challenges remain the same.”

A Greenland government official acknowledged the challenges of attracting capital but said future cooperation with the U.S. would help uncover opportunities to tap in to the territory’s potential. Around 7% of its ice-free area is covered by permits, leaving “plenty of room for increased exploration,” he said.

The craggy hills along Greenland’s coastal areas are endowed with a vast array of raw materials such as rare earths, graphite, copper and lithium—all critical commodities for green technologies, artificial-intelligence chips and military technologies.

A SSN-774 Virginia-class submarine requires around 9,200 pounds of rare-earth materials while an F-35 Lightning II aircraft needs some 920 pounds of the materials, according to a 2013 U.S. Congressional Research Service report. The European Commission says that 25 of the 34 critical raw materials it identifies as “strategically important” for Europe’s industry and green transition can be found in Greenland.

China dominates production and export of many of those raw materials. The U.S. depends on China for 72% of its imports of rare earths and more than 40% for its graphite requirements, according to U.S. government data and S&P Global Mobility.

The U.S. isn’t the only world power jostling for Greenland’s riches.

In 2023, the European Union signed a strategic partnership with Greenland to cooperate in prospecting, extraction and processing of critical materials. Beijing has long sought to boost its economic presence in the area, including investment in mining operations in Greenland. The Pentagon worked successfully in 2018 to block China from financing three airports on the island.

“Especially at the moment the rare earth element deposits in Greenland have an immense interest for the U.S., but also to many others, because China has a near monopoly on the world market,” said Marc Jacobsen , associate professor at Royal Danish Defense College.

Some miners have decided the risks posed by the challenges are worth the potential payoff. U.S. company Critical Metals owns a controlling stake in the Tanbreez rare-earths project in southern Greenland. Chief Executive Tony Sage first bought a slice of the project in 2022, and bought the rest last year.

The plan is to start extracting rare earths by 2027. Sage says he has held talks with the U.S. government about getting funding for the mine, and with Lockheed Martin over potential supply agreements.

Sage plans to build an open-pit mine—making it easier and cheaper to mine than an underground operation—and process the materials in the U.S.

To counter some of the logistical hurdles, there should be more government intervention and state-level subsidies, says Rod McIllree , a geologist and executive director at 80 Mile, which is developing a nickel, copper and cobalt mine.

Three new airports by the end of 2026, one of which has already opened, are also expected to ease some logistical strains.

Write to Georgi Kantchev at georgi.kantchev@wsj.com and Julie Steinberg at julie.steinberg@wsj.com