![\"Graphite](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-527973754_CROP.jpg\")
On the rocks: Countries are turning to Greenland\u2019s Amitsoq graphite (Image: Kevin Schafer\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Graphite is therefore worth going a long way to get. Late last year, Greenland\u2019s government granted UK-based mining company Greenroc Strategic Minerals a 30-year licence to extract graphite at Amitsoq, in the south of the vast island. The graphite deposit is not a new discovery \u2013 there was a mine there from 1914 to 1922, before demand tapered amid a general economic slump after the First World War. But it is known that the graphite at Amitsoq is the good stuff.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really rich,\u201d says Stefan Bernstein, CEO of Greenroc Strategic Minerals. \u201cAnd with graphite, it\u2019s not just about how pure it is. It\u2019s also about the physical properties of the flakes. The main market for graphite today is for anodes in lithium batteries and there you need to change the morphology \u2013 the shape of each grain. So it\u2019s not just a question of how clean you get the graphite but also the shape and size of the grain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greenroc hopes to begin extracting this treasure by 2030. \u201cWe are aiming for production of about 80,000 tonnes per year,\u201d says Bernstein. \u201cWho knows what Europe\u2019s graphite demand will be in 2035 or so but the mine will provide between 10 and 15 per cent of it.\u201d Bernstein adds that the new Amitsoq mine will also generate about 200 local jobs, with 50 people on site at any one time and most of the workforce commuting by boat from the small town of Nanortalik. \u201cMost other mines in Greenland rely on a fly-in, fly-out workforce,\u201d says Bernstein. \u201cWe\u2019re hopeful that we can have a very strong local engagement in the mine, and have people working in it who will still be able to maintain a normal life, like in a mining town in the UK 50 or 60 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n