The Mineral Resources of Greenland. 17 
Kroner ($ 8 600 000) of which about 98!/, % has been from the Ivigtut 
cryolite mine. The other minerals and metals, which have been pro- 
duced on a commercial scale, are coal, copper, graphite, gold and silver, 
lead, the rare earth minerals, and garnet, named in the order of their 
importance. 
The Ivigtut cryolite mine.! 
The Ivigtut cryolite mine is not only one of the more northerly 
of the world’s large mines, but it is the only locality at which cryolite 
occurs in commercial quantity. Through cryolite royalties Greenland 
is self-supporting, the surplus, after meeting all expenses, in 1918 being 
200 000 Kroner ($ 50000). There is probably no other orebody of 
pegmatitic origin quite so regular in form and in which with fair certainty 
ore can be counted upon beyond the working faces. It is a pegmatite 
unusually rich in metallic sulphides and zinc blende, pyrite, auriferous 
chalcopyrite and argentiferous galena and, in addition, siderite, in 
quantity are rarely as well established to be of pegmatitic origin. 
The mine is situated on the southwest coast of Greenland in latitude 
61°12’7” north, and longitude 48710725” west. It is on the south side 
of Arsuk Fiord, some 20.6 km (13 miles) from the sea-coast. The sides 
of the fiord rise almost shear 300 m (1 000 feet) and in places even 
600 m (2 000 feet). 
In the 18th century Danish missionaries, resident in Greenland, 
sent to Copenhagen as curiosities Eskimo fish net sinkers of cryolite 
and SCHUMACHER, in 1798, first mentions it, but considered it barite?); 
5 years later, Dr. ABILDGAARD of Copenhagen, partially analysed it; 
D’ANDRADE Е SILVA?) first, however, described it and named it cryolith 
(“ice rock”), from its easy fusibility and ice-like appearance. The 
reported derivation of the name from the statement of the Eskimo 
who found the mineral that it was “an ice which would not melt in 
summer’, is probably incorrect. GIESECKE in 1806 was the first to visit 
Ivigtut. His numerous samples were sent in 1808 on a boat bound 
for Copenhagen, which, after successive captures by a French privateer 
and an English frigate was taken to Leith, Scotland. The minerals 
were sold to THomas ALLAN and CoLLMRIE, Edinburgh mineralogists 
for £40. In commenting upon his luck in finding considerable quantities 
of cryolite in the lot, ALLAN says “I had obtained a few grains when 
in Paris as a present of great value”. He continues, “I have in my 
possession a small specimen for which a friend of mine paid £ 4”. In 
1) In addition to the writer’s observations, the works of K. J. V. STEENSTRUP, 
Ussıng, Воссию and many others have been consulted. 
2) Nat. Selskr. Skr. 4. 2. Hefte. 1798 pag. 230. 
3) SCHEERER: Allg. Journal der Chemie 4. р. 38. 1800. 
LXIM. 2 
