Having made the country’s first major hard rock lithium discovery in 2024, Brunswick Exploration Inc. plans an ambitious exploration campaign in 2025 to tap into Greenland’s lithium potential.
With its vast, untapped mineral potential and geographic position, Greenland deserves to be at the forefront of resource development, positioning itself as a key provider of lithium for European and North American Markets. The exceptional outcrop exposure and proximity to tidewater are highlights that make the potential for lithium in Greenland especially compelling, which is why Brunswick Exploration (TSX.V: BRW) has turned its eye to developing a major exploration programme in Greenland in 2025.
Brunswick Exploration leads Greenland’s lithium exploration
Brunswick Exploration Inc. (BRW), a Canadian exploration company, has become the first company in the world to lead the charge for lithium exploration throughout Greenland. Following a highly successful inaugural field season in the summer of 2024, BRW announced the country’s first-ever hard rock lithium discovery near Nuuk, the country’s capital, confirming BRW’s thesis that Greenland holds significant potential for lithium mineralisation.
Today, BRW stands as one of the largest mineral license holders in Greenland and remains the only company actively exploring for lithium, securing a significant first-mover advantage. With clear exploration and mining laws in place, highly prospective geology, and extensive outcrop exposure, 2025 is poised to be a pivotal year for lithium exploration in Greenland as BRW embarks on one of the most ambitious regional exploration initiatives in the country’s history.
Proven exploration methodology
For the past five years, BRW has refined and perfected its aggressive and innovative grassroots exploration approach in Canada, focusing on:
- Large-scale land packages.
- Cost-effective, rapid, and low-impact portable XRF testing.
Instantaneous testing results generate ‘live’ field data, allowing the team to focus on anomalous results in situ. The concept is simple: the more targets and the quicker one can get through them, the higher the odds of making significant discoveries. This methodology is not possible when searching for other, over-explored commodities and is also a function of the large crystal size that lithium pegmatites possess. This proven methodology has been highly successful in Canada, where BRW used it to make discoveries in 2023, so what better place to apply it than the world’s largest island – Greenland?
BRW’s low-cost, rapid, and environmentally responsible exploration approach intrigued the people of Greenland, allowing the company to build strong relationships with the Greenlandic government and local communities from the outset. With roughly 90% of the population being Inuit, the Indigenous people of Greenland form the majority of its stakeholders and leaders. During the staking, exploration and exploitation application process, multiple public consultations were built within Greenland’s mining legislation to allow for transparent and responsible dialogue between companies and local communities. Greenland is a very mining-friendly jurisdiction with an ‘open for business’ mentality.
During the summer of 2024, the BRW team launched a first-pass prospecting campaign on roughly 60,000 hectares of Greenland’s terrain in search of lithium-bearing pegmatites – leading to:
- The first major lithium discovery in Greenland’s history.
- Multiple high-potential leads set for follow-up exploration in 2025.
- A proof of concept for the Greenland people.
The discovery took place in the Ivisaartoq Greenstone Belt, about 90km northeast of Nuuk, within a spodumene-bearing pegmatite measuring 400m in length and 5m in width and containing up to 50% green and white spodumene crystals. More significantly, it is part of a larger 20km pegmatite field, suggesting immense potential for additional discoveries.
Since the discovery, the team announced expansions to their project holdings in Nuuk and Paamiut and staked additional projects near Uummannaq, Disko Bay and Hinksland for a new exploration package of roughly 165,000 hectares.
Refining data for the 2025 campaign
Upon returning to Canada, BRW analysed the extensive data collected during the 2024 summer and combined it with historical geological maps and satellite imagery to identify the most promising targets for the upcoming 2025 campaign.
Another breakthrough came from deep within the archives of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), where historical records indicate a spodumene showing within a 10km greenstone belt at the company’s Paamiut project that was first documented in the 1970s. Paamiut is located roughly 250km south of the capital of Nuuk.
Until recently, the exact location of this occurrence remained uncertain, but following extensive discussions with GEUS, BRW successfully pinpointed the correct location within the Paamiut property. This refinement validates the presence of lithium-bearing pegmatites in the Paamiut region, demonstrating the effectiveness of the company’s internal target generation models, and reveals a largely untested area that has never been systematically prospected for lithium. With access to this updated geological data and an expanded land package at Paamiut, BRW is well-positioned to revisit the site in 2025, where it anticipates the opportunity for a significant second discovery.
The 2025 exploration programme
With the support of the Greenlandic communities and government, BRW is set to launch an aggressive, regional-scale prospecting and mapping initiative beginning in June 2025.
With newly acquired license areas containing hundreds of untested, mapped, and interpreted pegmatites, the summer campaign promises to be the largest lithium exploration initiative ever undertaken in Greenland. BRW will have four crews and two helicopters for six weeks of non-stop exploration.
- In June, one team will focus on detailed mapping and sampling around the Ivisaartoq discovery, while another will explore BRW’s expanded Nuuk and Paamiut licenses.
- In July, teams will shift focus based on early results, with one crew following up at Nuuk and Paamiut and another team launching exploration at the newly acquired Disko Bay and Uummannaq projects.
These results will guide advanced exploration programmes in August and September, allowing BRW to prioritise the highest potential targets for future drilling.
Why Greenland?
With significant lithium discoveries already made in Canada, why is Brunswick Exploration (BRW) turning its attention to Greenland? While Canada’s lithium deposits will play a crucial role in supplying the North American market, they alone will not be sufficient to meet the growing demand in Europe. Given its strategic proximity to Europe, vast landmass, and low population density, Greenland has the potential to emerge as a key supplier of lithium for European markets.
Beyond its location, Greenland offers a uniquely favourable environment for lithium exploration, making it an ideal jurisdiction for a company like BRW to take the lead and help Greenland establish itself as a major player. Three key factors make Greenland particularly well-suited for BRW’s systematic and efficient exploration strategy: minimal overburden, high-quality geological data and a strong emphasis on community engagement.
- Little to no overburden
One of Greenland’s most significant advantages is its lack of overburden – meaning that much of the country’s bedrock is exposed, free from thick layers of soil or vegetation that would otherwise obscure potential mineral deposits. This geological feature allowed BRW’s team to conduct a rapid first-pass prospecting campaign over a vast 60,000-hectare land package in just 30 days using helicopters across both the Nuuk and Paamiut projects. The ability to directly assess outcropping pegmatites drastically accelerates exploration, reducing costs and timeframes. - Leveraging advanced geological mapping & strategic exploration planning
Greenland benefits from high-quality, detailed historical geological mapping at scales as precise as 1:20,000, providing an invaluable resource for exploration. While based in Canada, BRW’s team capitalises on this extensive data, analysing geological maps and integrating them with satellite imagery, historical geochemical data, and past mapping efforts – allowing them to prioritise high-potential pegmatite zones before even stepping foot in the field. This approach ensures a highly efficient use of resources when exploration resumes in Greenland’s warmer months. - The role of Indigenous communities
Like Canada, Greenland’s communities are at the heart of its economy and development, and resource exploration must align with its values and priorities from the very start. Mining, when done ethically and sustainably, is widely supported, and the country’s regulatory framework ensures that local communities and stakeholders are involved from the earliest stages of any project – even during the claim-staking process. BRW has a proven track record of building strong relationships with local communities and has positioned itself as a trusted partner in Greenland’s exploration landscape. By prioritising transparency and early involvement, the company is fostering long-term collaboration that assures the Greenlandic people remain at the centre of their role in the global lithium supply chain.
As BRW embarks on its ambitious 2025 exploration campaign, expanding across roughly 165,000 hectares of highly prospective land, the company is searching for lithium but is also aiming to pave the way for Greenland to become a key supplier to the rapidly growing European and North American markets. With its ideal geology, strategic location, and commitment to responsible exploration, BRW is setting the stage for what could become one of the most significant lithium districts in the world.
Please note, this article will also appear in the 22nd edition of our quarterly publication.
