Is there gold in Greenland’s ice?
Entrepreneurs are flocking to the Arctic island to harvest its most abundant resource in hopes there are enough people willing to pay a premium for vodka made with glacial meltwater or a cocktail chilled with Greenland ice.
The ice is marketed as cleaner and denser than most because it has been compressed in a glacier for 100,000 years before falling into the fjord. Whether the science backs up the sales pitch is the subject of debate, as are the environmental trade-offs of hauling ice chunks from the Arctic to nightclubs in Dubai.
Greenland says it’s open for business.
“If there’s something we have a lot of in this country, it’s ice,” said Thomas “Tyt” Mogensen, CEO of Nalik Ventures, Greenland’s $130 million business development fund. In the past five years, the territory’s government has approved 13 licenses to six companies that are currently or planning to harvest glacial meltwater and ice.
Arctic Ice, a two-year-old startup, captures car-size floating icebergs from a fjord in western Greenland, cuts them up with a chain saw, packs the chunks of ice into refrigerated containers, and loads them on cargo ships for a 10,000-mile, five-week ocean voyage.
Co-founder Ittu Lilliendahl, a native Greenlander, said he searches for icebergs that have calved from an inland glacier that empties into the waterway, which is about six hours by ship from the capital city of Nuuk.
“We look for the clearest ice from the bottom of the inland ice sheet, because that’s the oldest part, that’s the cleanest part,” said Lilliendahl.
Once the container arrives in Dubai, Arctic Ice workers carve the chunks into spheres and place them in triangular gift boxes that come with a little pair of tongs. The Arctic Ice boxes cost $100 for six cubes.
Diners at Nahaté Dubai, a restaurant and nightclub in Dubai’s financial district, can indulge in the gin-infused Desert Whisper cocktail that costs 175 dirham—about $48—chilled with Greenland ice cubes.
Valentin Pinault, a 28-year-old French entrepreneur living in Dubai, takes his 18-year single-malt Scotch over Greenland ice, which runs him 800 dirham, or about $218, at Nahaté. He said he likes that the ice cubes are free of dirt and bacterial contaminants and melts slowly.
“It just makes your drink cold, and doesn’t add too much water,” said Pinault, who saw a news article about the ice in October. “It’s pure.”
“The storytelling is very important for the customers,” said Andrey Bolshakov, marketing director at Nahaté Dubai. “And when you tell them they contain elements which are 100,000 years old, it’s impressive.”
Some aren’t sure this story checks out.
Mathieu Morlighem, professor of glaciology at Dartmouth College, said that as snow falls on the ice sheet it forms annual layers, like tree rings. Over time, the layers in the glacier become compressed.
As Greenland’s glaciers flow from the inland ice sheet down to coastal waterways, it’s virtually impossible to know how old the ice is, Morlighem said.
Thomas Olsen collects and ships glacial meltwater from southwestern Greenland to Jutland, Denmark where it’s distilled into gin and vodka under the Point 660 Glacier Spirits label for about $68 per bottle.
Still, Olsen said making a profit in Greenland is challenging.
“You have to know what you are doing out there, especially when it’s minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 Fahrenheit) for half a year,” Olsen said. “There’s no infrastructure, it’s a remote area, low population, so you have to do it all yourself.”
Greenland’s newly elected government is crafting legislation to attract more ice and water-harvesting firms. The new rules will streamline permits and improve roads and ports.
“Water and ice is a resource that could potentially mean a lot to Greenland,” said Naaja Nathanielsen, who took office as business and trade minister in April.
Greenland and the rest of the Arctic region has warmed three times faster than the global average temperature since 1980, according to a 2024 report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, while Greenland loses 270 billion tons of ice each year.
The region’s warming climate has boosted interest by foreign firms hoping to extract mineral deposits that lie underneath Greenland’s shrinking ice sheet. President Trump has threatened to take control of Greenland from Denmark for U.S. national security and access to these critical minerals.
Arctic Ice co-founder Samir Ben Tabib said he expects to ship 20 to 30 containers to Dubai once the seasonal ice around the coastline begins to break up in May. Ben Tabib said the firm is looking to expand into bottled water.
Ben Tabib isn’t the first entrepreneur to dream of bringing ice to thirsty bar patrons. In 2015, one company tried to sell ice cubes carved from a Norwegian glacier and ship them by helicopter, but its plan faltered amid local opposition. An ambitious plan to tow an iceberg from Antarctica to Saudi Arabia for freshwater fizzled in the 1970s.
The global ice market is expected to reach $7.23 billion in 2027, according to one study.
Exports of seafood account for 90% of Greenland’s exports, followed by minerals, but Nathanielsen believes there is a future in exports of water and ice, especially using ships lined with lightweight, flexible bladders.
“Bulk samples will be easier to manage,” Nathanielsen said, who noted that shipping costs are the biggest economic obstacle to expanding water and ice projects.
Not all residents think harvesting ice and water is a good idea. Some critics said the carbon footprint of shipping ice on oil-burning containerships from Greenland to the Persian Gulf is wasteful since Dubai already makes its own ice.
“This is a good example of how to start your own business and create a sense of belonging in the community here,” said Javier Arnaut, professor of social science and economics at the University of Greenland. “But at the same time, the ethical concerns may offset this idea. Is this actually a necessity that the world needs?”
WALL STREET JOURNAL