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CHARLOTTE, N.C., May 07, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- USA News Group News Commentary — There is a particular kind of inflection point in mining where the technical, the macroeconomic, and the geopolitical line up at the same moment, on the same project. That is the position Greenland Mines Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRML) finds itself in.
The Company has reported the results of an independent metal-price sensitivity analysis on its Skaergaard Project in Southeast Greenland — completed by SLR Consulting (Canada) Ltd., the same Qualified Person firm that authored the project’s November 22, 2022 NI 43-101 Technical Report. Applied to the existing 2022 underground-constrained Mineral Resource model, with all geologic and technical inputs held constant, the high-price sensitivity case indicates 16.58 million ounces of palladium-equivalent Indicated and 21.92 million ounces of palladium-equivalent Inferred. Average PdEq grades increase by 45% (Indicated) and 55% (Inferred) against the 2022 base case.
Skaergaard ranks among the largest undeveloped palladium-gold-platinum deposits in the world. Greenland Mines holds an 80% direct interest in the project, with an option to acquire the remaining 20%. The deposit has approximately $30 million of historical exploration investment behind it and has been studied academically since the 1990s.
This sensitivity work is not a new resource estimate. It is a single-variable read on what the deposit’s metal content looks like under modern long-term metal-price assumptions, performed on existing 2022 underground-constrained Mineral Resource model without changing tonnages, classification or cut-off grade.
ISOLATING THE METAL-PRICE LEVER
SLR’s analysis isolates one variable. The 2022 block model, drill database, the underground mining shape, the 1.43 g/t PdEq cut-off, the 3.12 t/m³ bulk density, the classification criteria, and every other technical assumption were held constant. Only metal-price assumptions and the resulting PdEq conversion factors were modified.
Three sensitivity cases were constructed:
- Low case: $1,725/oz Pd, $3,000/oz Au, $2,100/oz Pt
- Medium case: $1,725/oz Pd, $3,500/oz Au, $2,100/oz Pt
- High case: $1,800/oz Pd, $5,000/oz Au, $2,175/oz Pt
The 2022 base case had used $1,725/oz Pd, $1,800/oz Au, and $1,250/oz Pt. The dominant variable in the High case is the gold price — moving from $1,800 to $5,000 per ounce.
That is the move that has actually occurred. Newmont reported a Q1 2026 average realized gold price of approximately $4,900 per ounce on April 23. Kinross Gold reported $4,873 per ounce on April 30. Senior producer realized gold prices in the first quarter of 2026 are now sitting broadly at or above the gold input embedded in SLR’s high-price sensitivity case, which still represents an upside scenario.
In its memorandum, SLR notes that the increases in equivalent grades and contained PdEq metal are primarily driven by higher gold prices and considers the high-price sensitivity case relatively aggressive, viewing the Low and Medium cases as more reasonable long-term reference points for any future Mineral Resource update alongside updated cost assumptions.
SLR also recommends that any future Mineral Resource updates for Skaergaard be reported on a net smelter return (NSR) basis rather than using metal equivalents, consistent with evolving practice under SK 1300 and NI 43101 and with the different metal drivers in each horizon.
THE GRADE AND CONTENT STEP-FUNCTION
The numbers across the SLR sensitivity table reveal a structural shift in how the deposit reads under modern price assumptions.
The H5 horizon — historically the highest-grade zone in the deposit — moves from 2.85 g/t PdEq Indicated in the 2022 base case to 6.56 g/t PdEq Indicated in the High case. The Inferred grade in H5 moves from 2.49 g/t PdEq to 5.57 g/t PdEq. Total Indicated PdEq content moves from 11.41 Moz (2022) to 16.58 Moz in the high-price sensitivity analysis (High case) — a 45% step-up. Total Inferred PdEq content moves from 14.11 Moz (2022) to 21.92 Moz in the same high-price analysis (High case) — a 55% step-up. Even the Low sensitivity case lifts in-situ PdEq content meaningfully versus the 2022 base case.
What is potentially even more significant for a forward-looking thesis is what comes next. Per the announcement, the 2026 program will begin evaluating open-pit and bulk-mining scenarios alongside the underground concept — a strategic shift recommended by SLR in the 2022 Technical Report and supported by proper geotechnical, geophysical, and topographic data planned for collection during the summer field campaign. The 2022 Mineral Resource was constrained by an underground mining shape. A bulk-tonnage scenario, where supported by the data, would be a separate, mine-method-based lever — expanding the resource base independently of any further metal-price assumption.
That is two distinct levers, applied sequentially, on a deposit that is already among the largest undeveloped Pd-Au-Pt systems in the world.
A WORLD-CLASS TECHNICAL FOUNDATION
Greenland Mines has assembled three world-class consultants around the Skaergaard Project:
- SLR Consulting as Geological Consultant and Qualified Person — the same firm that prepared the 2022 NI 43-101 Technical Report and the current Mineral Resource Estimate, eliminating the relearning curve into the 2026 program;
- GTK Mintec for metallurgical and pilot-scale processing testwork at the Geological Survey of Finland’s facility in Outokumpu — one of the most established industrial-scale pilot platforms in Europe; and
- WSP for the environmental baseline study required under Greenlandic mining law.
The 2026 field, drill, and bulk-sample campaign is fully funded. President Bo Møller Stensgaard, Ph.D. described the integration directly: “The SLR sensitivity work crystallizes what makes Skaergaard so compelling. On the same conservative 2022 block model, simply applying a more gold-bullish long-term price deck takes the combined Pd-Au-Pt expression up by approximately 50%, with strong equivalent grade uplift in both the Indicated and Inferred categories. That is the kind of scale and price leverage that long-term institutional and strategic stakeholders and partners are looking for in the next generation of precious- and critical-metal projects.”
He further noted that the Company sees Skaergaard “increasingly as a future operation in the making, with mine method and metal prices acting as levers on what is already a very large Pd-Au-Pt and critical-metals system.”
THE WESTERN CAPITAL CYCLE FOR CRITICAL METALS
The reason this technical work matters now — rather than being a footnote in a quiet quarter — is that the Western critical-metals capital cycle has never been larger or more strategic. Bank of America Global Research raised its 2026 platinum forecast to $2,450/oz (from $1,825) and palladium to $1,725/oz (from $1,525). The U.S. Department of Commerce has estimated a dumping margin of approximately 828% on unworked Russian palladium imports. The World Platinum Investment Council reports that the platinum market entered its third consecutive year of supply deficit in 2025.
And the deal flow on the public market reflects exactly that.
USA Rare Earth, Inc. (Nasdaq: USAR)
On April 20, 2026, USA Rare Earth, Inc. (Nasdaq: USAR) announced a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of Serra Verde Group, owner of the Pela Ema rare earth mine and processing plant in Goiás, Brazil. The transaction consideration consists of $300 million in cash and 126.849 million shares of newly issued USAR common stock — implying an equity value of approximately $2.8 billion for Serra Verde at USAR’s pre-announcement closing share price. Serra Verde is projected to produce an average of approximately 6,400 metric tons of TREO per year from Phase 1, has secured a $565 million financing package from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, and has secured a 15-year offtake agreement to supply a special purpose vehicle capitalized by various U.S. government agencies as well as private capital. According to public reporting, Serra Verde’s Brazilian production is expected to represent over 50% of total non-China heavy rare earths supply by 2027, with further growth potential through a planned second phase of expansion.
The strategic logic mirrors the structural argument now being made across the entire Western critical-metals universe. Serra Verde Chairman Sir Mick Davis and CEO Thras Moraitis — both of whom helped build the Xstrata mining giant before its 2013 takeover by Glencore — have positioned the transaction as creating a Western rare-earths platform with the scale and strategic positioning to anchor non-China supply for one of the most critical industries in the global economy. On April 27, USA Rare Earth shares moved approximately 11% higher in the wake of analyst commentary on the strategic positioning. The Motley Fool noted the deal will give the Company access to all four magnetic rare-earth elements — Neodymium, Praseodymium, Terbium, and Dysprosium — outside of Asia.
The relevance to Greenland Mines is direct. The U.S. government has been extending the same kind of strategic capital backing to upstream critical-minerals players that allowed Serra Verde to commence production in 2024 following more than $1.1 billion in capital investment. The financing posture of the Western critical-metals supply chain is being rebuilt in real time. An undeveloped Pd-Au-Pt deposit located in a Western-aligned jurisdiction (Greenland), connected through a North Atlantic low-carbon processing strategy to North American and European refining markets, sits inside the same capital corridor that produced the Serra Verde transaction.
WHY THIS LANDS NOW
The combination of fact patterns currently in front of investors at Greenland Mines is unusual:
- A 2022 NI 43-101 Mineral Resource on Skaergaard, prepared by SLR, that already sits among the largest undeveloped palladium-gold-platinum deposits in the world.
- A 45–55% PdEq grade uplift in the high-price sensitivity case, on the same block model and with all other technical assumptions held constant.
- 16.58 Moz PdEq Indicated and 21.92 Moz PdEq Inferred at metal prices already broadly aligned with where the gold market has traded.
- A 2026 work program that will begin evaluating open-pit and bulk-mining scenarios — a second, mine-method-based lever.
- A fully funded summer field, drill and bulk-sample campaign supported by SLR (geology), GTK Mintec (metallurgy), and WSP (environmental).
- A direct 80% interest in the Skaergaard Project with an option on the remaining 20%.
- A North Atlantic low-carbon processing strategy connecting Greenlandic mining to North American and European refining markets.
- An external capital environment in which the U.S. government and Western institutional investors are deploying capital into precisely this kind of upstream non-China critical-minerals positioning at unprecedented scale.
Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. The sensitivity outputs are not standalone Mineral Resource or Reserve figures — they are illustrative of leverage to long-term metal price environments. No preliminary economic assessment, pre-feasibility study, or feasibility study has been completed on Skaergaard.
But the SLR sensitivity work is the kind of single-variable disclosure that markets understand quickly. The deposit’s PdEq metal content in the high-price sensitivity case scales by approximately 50% relative to the 2022 base-case PdEq values, and the gold input is already visible in the current realized-price datathat drives that scenario is already sitting on the screen.
When the macro, the technical work, and the geopolitical capital cycle all line up on the same project, in the same week, that is the moment investors recognize.
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