World’s Top Billionaires Fund Treasure Hunt In Greenland’s Melted Snow

As the snow melts off the tops of mountain peaks around the world, a group of billionaires has banded together to host an unusual search for certain hidden treasures: minerals. As Greenland melts away, a wellspring of minerals perfect for green energy use—such as batteries for electric vehicles—is presenting itself. 

Wealthy names backing the program include Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Michael Bloomberg, to name a few, who are supplying equipment and helicopters for people to search through the valleys and mountain regions of Greenland’s Disko Island and Nuussuaq Peninsula for the precious resources. 

The billionaire’s club is funding Kobold Metals, a California-based mineral exploration company, in the search for materials. In particular, nickel and cobalt, form the basis of all EV batteries. 

A host of geologists, geophysicists, pilots, mechanics, and cooks are moonlighting as treasure hunters for the expedition as they scour Greenland’s defrosting territory for potential renewable energy. 

The team is working together with Bluejay Mining to hunt down the minerals. Bluejay’s CEO, Bo Møller Stensgaard, told CNN that the melting snow poses an interesting conundrum. While it is a grand display of how global warming has really sunk its claws into the natural landscape, it has also aided the journey to find sustainable power sources as the lack of snow has made it easier to traverse the land and for ships to bring in heavy equipment for the crew. 

Drones and helicopters are being flown around the designated area to measure the electromagnetic field of the layers of rock below to determine where best to pull samples from. After that, the exact point of extraction is analyzed by artificial intelligence. 

While there may be a good outcome from a horrible situation, it shouldn’t overshadow the fact that Greenland is losing an unprecedented amount of snow, much of which is contributing to the rising sea levels, which in turn will send ripples through humanity. 

[via CNN and Vanity Fair, cover image via Volodymyr Shevchuk/Adobe Stock]