That is one of three key hurdles the US will likely have to overcome to gain access to Greenland’s resource wealth, according to Wood Mackenzie, an energy and mining research firm. Greenland ranking eighth in the world for rare earth reserves, important materials for the development of advanced electronics, electric vehicles and high-performance magnets. That wealth makes it an interesting target for a US administration eager to diversify supply chains from China, which is currently the dominant supplier behind many key minerals and controls a large part of the world’s processing capacity.

In one NOTES published Wednesday, WoodMac analysts outlined the main limits of trust in Greenland reserves in the bid of the US for unique land dominance. Here are three major obstacles standing in the way of Trump’s goals in Greenland:

1. Logistical nightmares

Arctic extremes can be a fierce adversary to any large-scale mining operation. Greenland’s vast ice sheet limits exploration along the island’s coastline. But even there, freezing temperatures and little light in winter make industrial operations nearly impossible. Equipment must endure subzero storage, while fuel and workers face remote transportation through inadequate ports and no roads, WoodMac analysts wrote. Even when a suitable site is found and manned, the deposits lie beneath sheets of ice up to a mile thick.

Only one port in Greenland, in the southwestern capital of Nuuk, boasts modern infrastructure that can accommodate exports, analysts added. In the rest of the territory, companies or countries that try to mine must build their own energy grid and transport networks, due to the lack of anywhere in the interior, as well as importing a whole skilled labor force.

“All these issues can be overcome, but it will take time and money,” the analysts wrote. How much money? Not specified by WoodMac, but experts said before luck with the price tag likely reaching hundreds of billions of dollars within a few decades.

2. Environmental and local push

Opposition to mining and resource extraction runs deep in Greenland’s political DNA. In an election in 2021, the left party Inuit Ataqatigiit won with a clear anti-mining message, particularly against a planned rare earths mine. The party passed several anti-mining laws, including law in 2021 that bans most uranium development. Instead, the government prioritizes small, sustainable operations.

In last year’s election, Inuit Ataqatigiit missing seats to a pro-development opposition, but Greenland’s Minister of Mineral Resources, Naaja Nathanielsen, remains affiliated with the left party. In one interviews with Politics This week, he rejected US threats and vowed to maintain control of resources, vowing that he and his party “will not accept our future development in our mineral sector to be decided outside of Greenland.”

It is unclear how the future US-led takeover will play out. But under current laws and agreements, the WoodMac analyst wrote, “any development must meet high standards for environmental and social impact.”

3. Alienating allies

But perhaps the most important obstacle facing Trump is the increasingly strained relationship between the US and its European partners. WoodMac analysts point out that Greenland’s geographic position between the US and Europe suggests that mines in the island’s unique soil will benefit both regions. By sharing financing and risk, they wrote, the US and the EU could access a more secure supply of rare earths independently from China.

“This cooperation is necessary at a time when relations between the US and the EU are at rock bottom,” they added. Trump’s designs on Greenland have been widely criticized by the EU as well as the UK, both recently. sent a small number of troops to Greenland—ostensibly for training purposes but it also symbolizes their unity. Tensions appeared to have eased somewhat after Trump’s appearance in Davos last week, where he ruled out military action and repeated threats of EU tariffs.

But transatlantic relations remain at a low point. And if Trump ramps up his angry rhetoric once more, Greenland could be pushed even closer to China, WoodMac analysts warn. While China currently has only a small stake in Greenland’s mining operations, and the island’s government has stated that it favors cooperation with Western countries, it has also signaled an openness to Chinese involvement if the conditions are right. In one interviews with FT last year, Nathanielsen, the mineral minister, criticized the decline in US and EU investment.

“We want to work with European and American partners. But if they don’t show up I think we have to look elsewhere,” he said.