Back in 2014, I reported for the Guardian on an Australian company determined to open a uranium mine in Greenland.
Years later, the issue is still live, the mine hasn’t happened but the corporation is determined to make it a reality.
Green Left is covering the story (and virtually nobody else is):
Sydney-based independent journalist, author and filmmaker Antony Loewenstein has been following this case since 2014. At the time, he wrote an article for the Guardian outlining the political record of GML, then called Greenland Minerals and Energy Ltd (GMEL), and its alleged control by a mysterious businessman, Mihran Shemesian, also known as “Mick Many Names”.
“In 2009, Fairfax media claimed that Shemesian controlled more than 20% of GMEL stock. Range Resources, another company tied to Shemesian, had earlier been accused of paying the disputed government of the Puntland State of Somalia, linked to Somali rebels, more than US$6m (A$9.3m) for resource rights to the region,” Loewenstein wrote.
When Loewenstein asked Mair about Shemesian, he was told he isn’t “registered as a shareholder”. However, Mair would not guarantee that Shemesian has no involvement with GMEL.
“Years ago I found troubling transparency questions around the Australian firm GMEL [now GML] and it should be treated with caution,” Loewenstein told GL.
“This issue has received barely any coverage in Australia and it begs the question; what’s a relatively unknown Western Australian company trying to do in Greenland and what are its real motives? Uranium mining in pristine territory should be rejected outright.”
GML should stop pushing a mining project that clearly doesn’t have a social license to operate, he added.