Before it could cast its first gold bar, Amaroq had to build a port and housing, repair a road, and ship over equipment -- a logistical nightmare highlighting the complexities of mining in inhospitable Greenland.

"This is obviously much, much harder than setting up any other business around the world," Eldur Olafsson, the head of the Canadian mining company, told AFP.

Amaroq operates one of only two active mines on the vast Arctic island, a region full of promise for mineral wealth but which has proven difficult to exploit.

From Ukraine, where US President Donald Trump wants to get his hands on natural resources, to the seabeds that numerous companies want to explore, minerals are today at the centre of major geopolitical and industrial ambitions.

Greenland remains almost entirely unexploited, and its minerals are seen as a potential springboard to independence, a goal backed by a majority of the island's 57,000 inhabitants.

Trump's stated ambitions to take over the Danish autonomous territory have only served to boost islanders' support for........

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