Historical perspectives: the European commercial exploitation of Arctic mineral resources after 1500 AD

This paper focuses on the commercial exploitation of Arctic mineral resources by European newcomers to the region. Minerals in demand were extracted in the North and transported to European markets for financial gain. This practice is bound up in the wider colonial history of the North and its discovery and utilisation by individuals, companies, and nation states intent on making profits and claiming territory. The general processes at work are illustrated using four case studies: Frobisher’s ‘black ore’ from Baffin Island; the company-controlled extraction of Greenland cryolite; the ‘resource frontier frenzy’ at Nome; and the race for coal in the no man’s land of Spitsbergen. Such mineral-based processes set the scene for the emergence of the modern Arctic as a resource frontier region, which is currently seeing renewed interest from cooperations and nation states