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Geologist Minik Rosing, a native Greenlander and professor at the University of Copenhagen, argues that the assumptions about getting rich quickly from untapped resources in Greenland are akin to planning to get wealthy by playing the lottery. The widespread lack of detailed knowledge about geology, mining, and minerals has resulted in, he says, an almost "mythological misunderstanding" of what rare earth elements truly are.

"In geology, we say what characterizes rare earths is that they are neither rare nor earth. They are a group of metals that are commonly occurring in many rock types, and there are large known deposits of them throughout the world," Rosing explained.

According to Rosing, nothing points to a special concentration of minerals and rare earths in Greenland, and there are many places in the world where minerals are easier and cheaper to obtain, such as in the USA. In the U.S. Geological Survey's overview of known rare earth reserves from 2024, Greenland sits eighth in the table, ranked just behind the US but far behind countries such as China, Vietnam, and Brazil.