tons

when Istanbul moved 45,000 tons from its old airport in less than 45 hours

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Modern aviation is not only measured in knots or altitudes, but also in the ability of airports to process huge flows of people or cargo on a continuous basis. But there is an unwanted scenario that could occur: that the airport is not enough. When it collapses, it dies of success and serious logistical measures have to be taken. This is what happened in Istanbul: the need to expand the old Atatürk airport encountered an insurmountable barrier in the form of urban geography. For great evils, great remedies: they had to move the entire airport while international aviation and the country’s logistics continued their course. The event is known as “The Great Move“and constitutes the largest move in civil aviation. In less than 45 hours the center of gravity of air transport in the region moved 42 kilometers north, to the new Istanbul Airport (IST), with all that this entails. The move. In aviation, this operational transfer program is known as ORAT (Operational Readiness and Airport Transfer) and it goes without saying that this move was not spontaneous, but rather the opposite: it took two years of meticulous preparation in which they trained 33,000 airport staff and carried out two large-scale drills to detect potential problems. It all started immediately after the opening of the new airport in October 2018 and the final phase (that move), was executed in a continuous 45-hour window between April 5 and 6, 2019 to move more than 10,000 pieces of equipment with a total weight of 47,300 tons. In fact, it was even better: they did it in much less time. Why is it important. If a move has its ins and outs per se, for an airport the problems and the need to execute it without errors multiply as long as it is a living infrastructure with interdependent systems such as fuel, air traffic control, security, IT, passengers and luggage. Disconnecting, transporting and reconnecting everything without collapsing the air traffic of one of the busiest cities in the world is a high-flying engineering challenge. “The Great Move” showed that a world-class hub is possible without a prolonged dual transition, minimizing the operational risk of managing two airports simultaneously. Finally, the movement consolidated Istanbul as a great connection point between Europe and Asia, rivaling others in the Middle East such as Doha or Dubai. Without this move, Turkish Airlines’ growth would likely have been stagnant due to the physical limitations of the old airport. Context. In 2017, Atatürk Airport was the fifth busiest in Europe, behind Heathrow, Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. Without going any further, in 2018 served to almost 70 million passengers, making it the tenth busiest on the planet. But it was limited: it was surrounded by the city on three sides and by the Sea of ​​Marmara on the fourth, so expansion was physically impossible. The secondary airport of Sabiha Gökçen It had also reached its maximum capacity. The lack of space was so critical that it prevented the Airbus A380 from operating, making Atatürk the only major airport in Europe and the Middle East unable to receive such aircraft. So in 2013 they made the decision. The flight that brought down the curtain on Atatürk was Turkish Airlines TK54: it took off on April 6, 2019 at 02:44 to Singapore. In figures. Although there are slight variations in sources directly involved such as Turkish Airlines or the documentary he recorded of the process by the airport operator with the collaboration of National Geographic, are minor and do not detract from the colossal nature of the operation: A planned duration of 45 hours (which they reduced to 33 according to the IGA and less than 30 according to Turkish Airlines) More than 10,000 pieces of equipment moved between airports, with a total weight of 47,300 tons. Equivalent to 33 football fields. 686 semi-trailers used for transportation, according to the CEO of Turkish Airlines. 1,800 people were directly involved in the process. They estimated the distance traveled by the trucks in 45 hours to be 400,000 kilometers, that is, going around the Earth about 10 times. How they did it. It took two years of meticulous preparation in which they trained 33,000 airport staff and conducted two large-scale drills to detect potential problems. Planning required more than 100 meetings and workshops and there were three logistics companies involved. For execution, they developed a logistical transfer plan with details of the movement of each vehicle in 15-minute windows. The route was established through a corridor between the two airports, using the new highway connection between both facilities and each vehicle was checked twice: once at the departure gate and once in a separate control area. The whole process was monitored in real time with GPRS to detect any incident. At 02:59 on April 6, 2019, the IATA code changes were made: Atatürk’s IST code was renamed ISL and the new airport inherited it. Between 02:00 and 14:00 that day, both airports were closed to commercial flights, a 12-hour period that constituted the critical core of the entire operation. The new airport. Istanbul Airport had an estimated budget of 22 billion euros, becoming at that time the second most expensive airport ever built, as told Reuters. Designed with a single terminal under a single roof of 1.4 million square meters, initially allowing 90 million passengers annually. The master plan contemplates expansions up to 200 million, with independent runways that allow simultaneous landings and takeoffs, eliminating waiting in the air. In 2025, the airport rondo 85 million passengers, making it the second busiest in Europe after Heathrow and the seventh in the world. In Xataka | The unfinished dream of the Roman Empire: a 125-kilometer train to link Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus In Xataka | One of the largest and strangest airports in the world is not going to be in Dubai or the UAE: it is going to be in Ethiopia Cover | Ercan Karakaş and Kulttuurinavigaattori

We believed that tons of feces were the big problem with the touristification of Everest. Until the scam rescue arrived

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Everest may be the roof of the world, but it has long ceased to be the remote and isolated place they found themselves seven decades ago. Edmund Hollary and Tenzing Norgaythe first to summit its icy summit. The best proof was left to us just before the pandemic by Nirmal Purja, the author of one of the most famous (and striking) snapshots of the mountain: in it we see a very long row with dozens and dozens of tourists climbing in single file towards the summit, just as if they were queuing to enter the Louvre or board a cruise ship. That Everest has become a monster touristified It’s no surprise. What is curious is that there are people (presumably) breaking the laws to take advantage of that demand and defraud the insurers. A huge theme park. One would expect the highest place on the planet to be an inhospitable place, reserved for the most intrepid locals and adventurers. Perhaps it was like this in the 1950s, when Hollary and Norgay ascended to more than 8,800 meters of altitude to reach its summit. Not today. The photography that Purja took in 2019 is just the graphic verification of a phenomenon that can be measured in figures… and even in feces: Everest is a tourist icon that they visit every year hundreds and hundreds of climbers, leaving behind millions of dollars and a trail of tons of waste. You will find more infographics at Statista Where there is tourism… There is business, of course. That universal truth is applicable both in Amsterdam, Florence either Barcelona such as in the remote Himalayas, which over the last few decades has seen a thriving industry take shape dedicated to serving those who visit Everest. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTC), in 2023 alone Nepal’s tourism sector generated revenue worth about 2.5 billion of dollars and boosted hundreds of thousands of jobs, both direct and indirect. Even Nepal has considered shoot 40% the fees he charges mountaineers, a source of income that among other things helps him clean the region. Where is the problem? Beyond the environmental impact that this overcrowding has in the mountain range, there is actually no problem in travel agencies, Sherpas, transportation companies, hotels and other businesses oriented to Nepalese tourism trying to make money. Climbing Everest doesn’t come cheap, but at the end of the day, whoever wants to pay for it. The problem is that not all of these professionals respect the law when looking for ways to make money. What’s more, there are those who have no qualms about cheatfalsify and commit millionaire frauds. Mountaineering and picaresque. The news I advanced it a few days ago The Kathmandu Postone of the largest English-language newspapers in Nepal. The Central Investigation Bureau of the Nepalese Police (CIB) has revealed a network dedicated to deceiving insurers who cover mountaineers in the Himalayas. Their modus operandi may vary, but the idea is always the same: alleged scammers make fraudulent ransoms to claim compensation. It may sound rudimentary, but the scam takes advantage of two circumstances that work in its favor. First, in rescue operations speed prevails, so there is no room to wait for the approval of the experts. Second, deceived insurers are often based thousands of kilometers away (in London or Paris), making it difficult for them to confirm what is happening on the ground. One goal, two methods. How do you prepare the scam? The CIB has identified two methods. The first is quite simple and requires the tourist to participate in the deception. If a climber is exhausted after days (or even weeks) of hiking and wants to save the trip back to camp, his guide can offer him a way out that is as comfortable as it is ethically questionable: faking an illness so that the insurance company can mobilize a rescue operation. The second method is a little more complicated, but the end result is the same. The guides or accommodations take advantage of the client’s ignorance to make them believe that the symptoms of altitude sickness (which are usually resolved with rest, hydration and a gradual descent) are actually signs that they are at serious risk, even of death. The key is to suggest the hiker enough so that he ends up asking to be evacuated by a charter helicopter. And where is the business? In the cost of the operation. It is not just that the company that provides that service charges the insurer for a helicopter that was not really necessary, it is that, precise The Kathmandu Postoften manages to expand its profit margin. As? It carries several passengers on the same flight and then sends separate invoices to their insurance companies. In practice that means that a single $4,000 charter flight can end up giving rise to three separate claims worth $12,000. Added to this are alleged treatments in the hospital, even when the client in question did not need assistance. For example, the Nepalese newspaper talks about cases in which treatment is claimed for hikers who were actually in the cafeteria. Not all people who are involved in this mess have to participate in the deception. He post speaks of falsifications of flight manifests or reports with digital signatures of completely unrelated doctors. One figure: 20 million dollars. At the end of March the CIB accused 32 people for this type of crimes, which according to the AFP agency amounted to a total scam 19.69 million of dollars. It may seem like a lot, but the figures revealed by the CIB investigation are eloquent: between 2022 and 2025, it identified 4,782 foreign patients treated in the investigated hospitals. Of these, inspectors believe that 171 corresponded to simulated evacuations. During that period some health centers received deposits worth millions of dollars related to those services. The older ones are the helicopters. Poisoning? The CIB investigation has attracted the attention of the media everyonealthough their headlines often focus on another … Read more

10,000 tons of almonds have disappeared in Granada in a single night. It is a warning of what is about to happen.

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On the night of March 30, 2026, about 30 million euros they vanished. The figures They are from COAGbut (taking into account the precedents from the beginning of the decade and the growth of almond cultivation) they sound plausible: the region that concentrates the largest almond production in the country, lost around 10,000 tons due to a late frost. And it’s not even the most interesting thing. What the hell is up with almonds? With 70,000 hectares dedicated to almonds, the Granada Altiplano has become the national epicenter of the production of this fruit. Paradoxically, we might add. Because it is something very rare: there are not many more cases of crops that do not stop growing on the surface while their vulnerability increases to levels never seen before. A vulnerability that, of course, is not limited to March 30. Because that would be the easy thing to do: blame everything on cold air intrusion from the north that knocked down the thermometers of the Altiplano (-5 in Galera and Baza, -4 in Puebla de Don Fabrique or -3 in Castril) just at the moment of greatest sensitivity of the almond tree. However, that is only part of the story. Of course, frost during flowering and fruit setting is a problem. But in the last five years, the region has suffered 3 frosts of this type and the area of ​​almond trees does not stop growing. That is to say, the vulnerability is deeper and exceeds the climate risks: we are talking about the advance of the almond wasp, insufficient agricultural insurance, the tariff asymmetry with our main competitor (California) and, of course, the enormous pressure that international prices exert on farmers. And what happened to the harvest? According to COAGpreliminary estimates draw a very complicated scenario: between 8,000 and 12,000 tons lost, an economic impact of between 25 and 40 million euros and the complete loss of all production in the most affected areas. The assessment of the Junta de Andalucía and the Ministry is missing, but the figures serve to measure the destruction. Hunger with the desire to eat. Spanish almond production It was already affected by the drought and none of the explanations are surprising (late rains, winds that make pollination difficult, hailstorms in April and fungi derived from humidity). However, in 2025, things seemed to turn around and the campaign was positive. But it was a statistical artifact: production grew by 5%but the productive surface had increased by 10. That is to say, the situation was still complicated. And the data does not stop changing. It is enough to keep in mind that 15% of all the almond trees planted in Spain are not yet productive to understand that the crop has been experiencing a boom for years that does not end (and that may end by give us some displeasure). What does the almond tree need to avoid becoming the new lemon? That is, so that we are not forced to have to start ripping them out in a few years. And the answer is also simple: what you need is a better safety net, a better way of looking to the future, a better way of moving in the market. I have said it many times: In agriculture, Spain is a giant with feet of clay. And the almond tree is the best example that this is still the case and we have enormous difficulties to change it. Image | Marcia Cripps In Xataka | Spain is the second largest almond producer in the world. Tariffs or not, farmers are already in trouble

It is called CY8, and it is the missing piece to transport tons

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In some of the most extreme environments on the planet, such as plateaus above 4,000 metersair density can reduce the takeoff ability of an aircraft by more than 30%forcing a complete redesign of how any cargo is transported. For a long time, that has limited what can be moved… and, importantly, where. The “air truck” of Beijing. Yes, China has just successfully tested a pilotless “air truck” in the form of a drone. It’s called CY-8 and its first flight in Zhengzhou was not only a technical test, but the confirmation of a concept: an unmanned aircraft capable of combining large load capacity with operational flexibility that until now was reserved for much more complex or infrastructure-dependent platforms. Designed to charge. The CY-8 stands out for a very clear logic: moving weight efficiently. With a maximum weight of 7 tons and a 3.5 ton loading capacitypractically equals its own useful weight, something key in logistics operations. Your closed cellar 18 cubic meterswith front and rear access, allows you to accelerate loading and unloading processes, reducing time on the ground and increasing the pace of operation in environments where every minute counts. Operate where others cannot. The local media reported that the true advantage of the system is not only in how much it transports, but in where can you do it. The CY-8 can take off in less than 500 meters and operate on basic tracks, allowing you to access high mountain areas, isolated regions or island environments. It is optimized for extreme altitudes such as those in Tibet and for territories with limited infrastructurewhich greatly expands its radius of action beyond conventional airports. Autonomy, range and versatility. With more than 3,000 km rangethe drone not only connects remote points, but does so without the need for pilots and with the ability to adapt to multiple missions. Plus: can be set up quickly for logistics transportdisaster relief, emergency communications or reconnaissance tasks, making it a hybrid platform between civil and military, designed to respond to changing scenarios. Pilotless logistics. The development of the CY-8 is part of a growing competition to dominate heavy unmanned aerial transport. China is already working in even bigger modelswhile the United States explores alternatives with vertical takeoff that completely eliminate the need for runways. In this context, the CY-8 represents a more or less intermediate bet: it does not eliminate the infrastructure, but it does reduce it to the essential minimum. More than a drone, a strategic piece. Beyond its numbers, this “monstrous” drone redefines a key idea: in conflicts or crises, it is not enough to arrive, we must be able to sustain. This type of platform makes it possible to maintain supply chains in places where it was previously complex or impossible to do so. Therefore, more than an isolated technological advance, this kind of Chinese “air truck” points to a paradigm shift: logistics, silent and constant, as the true engine of any modern operation. Image | x In Xataka | China just showed the world what comes after the combat drone: 96 drones with a science fiction launch In Xataka | For years we have associated drones with propellers: in China they explore an alternative inspired by nature

Cocoa is so expensive that some suspect that a shipment with 12 tons of Kitkat has been stolen

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There was a time when big robberies had their own Hollywood epic: the Bank of England goldthe diamonds of the Great Antwerp Raidthe tickets from the Federal Reserve or the assault on the Mint and Stamp House of The Money Heist. Well, in 2026, European organized crime has decided that the most valuable thing you can take with you in a truck is 413,793 chocolate bars. No, it’s not a joke. In a statement to the AFP agencyNestlé has reported the theft of a shipment of more than 12 tons of KitKat chocolates, an incident that the multinational warns could cause supply problems right in the middle of the Easter campaign. A blow to Easter. According to the company, one of its logistics trucks carrying 413,793 a batch of chocolates KitKat has disappeared while transferring between the production center and the distribution center. According to pointed Reutersthe vehicle had left a factory in central Italy bound for Poland, but its trace was lost somewhere along the way. Since then, neither the truck nor the merchandise have been located and the investigation remains open. Nestlé warns that the disappearance of more than 400,000 units could be noticed in stores in the coming weeks, just at one of the times of greatest chocolate consumption of the year with the arrival of Easter and coinciding with the preparation of traditional sweets and cakes during these days. Pay attention to the black market. The company assures that it is collaborating with local authorities and its logistics network to try to locate the sweet shipment, although for now there are no details about the exact point of the journey at which the truck disappeared. The brand also warned that the stolen bars could enter unofficial sales channels in European markets. To combat this, KitKat noted that it is possible to trace the origin of products by scanning the unique lot codes listed on each bar. If the traceability system detects a coincidence, an action manual has been put in place to alert the company. Make a KitKat. Despite the seriousness of having lost almost half a million chocolate bars, the company has found humor in the face of such an unusual situation. A spokesperson for the brand made fun of KitKat’s famous slogan about taking a break or, as they call it, “making a kitkat.” “We’ve always encouraged people to take a break from KitKat, but it seems thieves have taken it too seriously and made off with more than 12 tonnes of our chocolate.” The truth is that, joking aside, the thieves have taken a button so voluminous that it will hardly go unnoticed if they try to “place” it on the market. “While we appreciate the exceptional taste of criminals, the truth is that merchandise theft is a growing problem for businesses of all sizes,” KitKat stated in its statement. brown gold. The theft comes at a time when the cocoa market is experiencing its biggest correction in decades. After reaching all-time highs above $12,000 per ton in 2024, the price of cocoa at origin has fallen more than 60%, reaching around $3,165 per ton at the end of March 2026. However, that moderation has barely reached the consumer and the cocoa prices They rose by 18% in the EU during 2025. Despite the price of the raw material having moderated, European supermarkets keep prices rising because manufacturers passed on the increases when the market was skyrocketing, but they took it more calmly when it fell. In Xataka | Coffee and cocoa have become so expensive that they are drowning themselves: buyers do not have the money to send them Image | Unsplash (justin, Gabriel Santos)

Mercadona and the rest of the supermarkets spend tons of paper on receipts that no one reads. Now they want to change it

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You go to the supermarket, you buy a couple of things (just enough for dinner), you go to the checkout, they give you the ticket, you put it in your pocket and you leave with the bag in the direction of the parking lot. Pure routine. Our daily bread. If the employer’s retail achieves its objective, there is one element of that scene, however, that will change radically. Which? That ticket that you will end up throwing away without even reading it. What has happened? Every year supermarkets print millions and millions of strips of paper in which in many cases only a handful of articles appear, so they end up in the garbage can without anyone having even looked at them. It is a waste, a waste of resources. For chains like Dia, Lidl or Mercadona, but also for the environment. So Asedas (Spanish Association of Distributors, Self-Service and Supermarkets) has had an idea: they want us to start printing receipts only when the customer requests it. What do they want? The news I advanced it on thursday theEconomist. Asedas has proposed to the Government that it slightly tweak the regulations that regulate tickets so that they are no longer printed systematically. That does not mean that they are no longer issued or that the customer no longer has a receipt that clarifies what they have purchased and how much they have been charged. The change would focus on support. The idea, clarifies Ignacio García, head of Asedas, is “that the ticket continues to be generated electronically for control purposes, but that it is printed on paper at the consumer’s request.” That is, the user can request the physical or digital ticket. Right now, remember theEconomistthe regulations provide that supers deliver the receipt in two ways: either in paper or digital format. What’s happening? Since not all clients are in favor of handing over their data (including email) to the chains, in the end they have no choice but to print it. Not only that. The employer’s data They show that many of the times we go to the supermarket we buy only a handful of items, so the receipts show small transactions, for low amounts that we do not even review. Result: those papers end up in the trash as they are printed. It is not even strange for the customer to reject them when the cashier offers them to them. Is it that serious? “Our companies have been confirming for years that, in about a third of operations, the ticket is abandoned at the checkout line,” confirm Garcia. It is not surprising if we take into account the data on the shopping basket managed by Asedas. According to their estimates, 30% of the operations registered in supermarkets respond to almost urgent visits, during which we take home at most four products and spend less than 10 euros. In 60% of cases, purchases involve between five and 25 products with average tickets of between 10 and 50 euros. Only the remaining 10% actually respond to large purchases. In practice, the fact that all operations end up reflected in a receipt means that the supers generate about 5 billion tickets that require the use of almost 4,500 tons of paper and a million-dollar expense. Is it important? Beyond the millions of receipts that are printed each year and the cost that this entails in tons of paper and euros, Asedas’ proposal is interesting for at least two reasons. To start with who throws it. Asedas presume to be “the first food distribution business organization in Spain” and cover 19,200 retail stores and 495 wholesalers. Between your partners Companies such as Mercadona, Lidl, Aldi or Dia appear. Another key is that its idea is in line with what is already done in other European countries. For example, in 2023 France said goodbye to the generation of tickets by default precisely because of the amount of paper it consumed. That doesn’t mean they no longer exist, but they must be requested. In the Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden there have also been changes related to the generation of receipts. In Spain itself, some large chains they take time moving towards the digital ticket. Images | Xataka Mobile and Wikipedia In Xataka | There was a time not too long ago when the future of supermarkets seemed like Amazon Go. Now Amazon Go is dead

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates import millions of tons of sand every year despite living on immense deserts

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The story is striking in itself: Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two countries closely associated with the desert, import tons and tons of sand every year. So striking, in fact, that the first intuition is that it is false. But, as soon as you get closer to it, you discover that not only is it true, but it is more interesting than it seems. Because yes, these countries import a lot of sand. In 2023, only the United Arab Emirates bought more than six million tons. And it is surprising, of course, because these are two countries located on enormous deserts. The explanation, however, is simple: the sand they have is not suitable for certain things. At a technical level, what is known as “eolian sand” (that which the wind accumulates in dunes) is very fine, very uniform and very rounded. That makes it a poor sand for making glass, concrete or other industrial products. It is not that it cannot be used, but it requires adjusting the mixtures, controlling the granulometry and impurities (fines), and carefully balancing the manufacturing processes. That is to say, the process ends up becoming so expensive that it is cheaper to import sand that is more suitable for standardized processes. And this, ultimately, should not surprise us. Sand is, today, the second most exploited resource in the world (only after water). The United Nations Environment Program estimates that every year 50,000 million tons of sand and gravel are used. What’s more, the lack of sand is so obvious that there are criminal networks that traffic with her internationally. However, we are not talking about just any sand. There are, as is evident, many types of sand. For what is not interesting today we can distinguish natural sand (HS 250590) and siliceous/quartz sand (HS 250510). The Gulf countries import, above all, the second. Emirates, to give an example, is spent half a million a year in the first and 87 million in the second. That is to say, although they are countries ‘rich’ in sand, they do not have the sand they need. A sand, moreover, with very specific specifications (granulometry, purity, humidity, fines, contaminants, consistency of supply) and that are basic for glass, foundry, filtration or the chemical industry. However, they also import natural sand. And this is interesting because, as they point out in the UNthis only makes clear the significance of the problem of governance and externalities. Despite having usable sand, in many cases it is preferred to buy from other countries (such as Oman) to avoid the negative externalities of draining sand from their coasts and deserts. Something that can alter livelihoods (fishing, agriculture due to salinization, coastal tourism) and increase vulnerability to storms. In the summer of 2019, the couple who became famous was arrested in Sardinia for hiding 40 kilos of sand in his trunk. That was the anecdote, the problem was another: that beyond mass tourism, the tensions on the sand are increasingly greater. It is something that has only grown and is normal. The world is not here to do without one of its most valuable resources. Image | Lars Portjanow In Xataka | We are running out of sand. And there are already traffickers who negotiate with it in India or Morocco

Greenland has 1.5 million tons of rare earths. The problem is that there are no roads to get to them.

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The geopolitics of the 21st century has found a new and icy epicenter. After the capture of Nicolás Maduro In Venezuela earlier this month, Donald Trump’s administration has turned its diplomatic aggressiveness northward. The goal It’s an old longingtake control of Greenland, which the White House defines as an “ingot” of strategic resources. However, the physical reality is inescapable since beneath a complex geology lies an absolute lack of basic infrastructure that turns any extraction plan into a logistical chimera. The 93-mile wall of asphalt. Since the Republican Party introduced the Make Greenland Great Again Act In 2025, pressure on Denmark has escalated to even suggesting the use of force. As explained by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)Washington has elevated Greenland to the category of “national security” need. This position, which some analysts already call the “Donroe Doctrine”, seeks to secure the hemisphere as an exclusive sphere of influence against Russian icebreakers and Chinese expansion. But obsession collides with engineering. According to CSIS dataGreenland—a territory three times the size of Texas—only has 93 miles (150 kilometers) of roads in total. There are no railways and the settlements are isolated from each other by land. Diogo Rosa, researcher at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, warns in Fortune that any mining project must create these accessibilities from scratch. This includes ports capable of handling industrial volumes (Narsaq port barely moves 50,000 tons a year) and local power plants, since the current electrical grid is unable to sustain a large scale mine. The enigma of eudialite. Even if roads were built to reach neodymium and terbium, the mineral itself poses an unprecedented technical challenge. Greenland’s rare earth elements are typically encapsulated in a complex type of rock called eudialite. Unlike carbonatites that are mined elsewhere in the world with proven methods, no one has developed a profitable process to extract them from eudialite, as explained by analysts. For this reason, experts like Javier Blas describe the enthusiasm of the Trump administration as a “Optimistic PowerPoint”. Blas maintains that the island is not a Wonderland of raw materials: if after decades of exploration no large mining company has operated successfully, it is because the processing costs—which would exceed 1 billion dollars—devour any profits. Added to this is that deposits as Kvanefjeld They are co-located with radioactive uranium, which has generated massive social rejection and environmental laws that block the projects. The mirage of mining wealth. Currently, Greenland only has two active mines: an anorthosite mine and the Nalunaq gold mine. The latter, operated by the Canadian Amaroq Minerals, managed to produce 6,600 ounces of gold in 2025, exceeding its own forecasts. But as Scott Dunn, CEO of Noveon Magnetics, points out, in Fortunethe success of gold (a high-value, low-volume mineral) is not scalable to rare earths. While Washington makes long-term plans in the Arctic, companies like Dunn’s are already producing magnets in Texas with materials sourced outside China, demonstrating that the solution to technological supply could be closer to home than the Polar Circle. The China factor: the silent owner. The great strategic obstacle to the “Donroe Doctrine” is not only the ice, but that Beijing is already there. China controls near the 90% of global supply of rare earths and has known how to play its cards in the Greenlandic subsoil through litigation. The company Energy Transition Minerals (ETM), with significant Chinese capital, holds an arbitration international against Greenland, demanding historic compensation of $11.5 billion — four times the island’s GDP — following the ban on uranium mining in 2021. This legal dispute places the island in a geopolitical clamp: Washington wants control to expel Beijing, but the latter is already blocking the richest deposits through business actions and prior exploitation rights. The navigable Arctic: an unexpected ally? Paradoxically, the hoax Climate change is what is accelerating the White House’s plans. Greenland is warming much faster than the rest of the planet, and melting ice is transforming the Arctic into a strategic trade corridor. As the New York Times reportsthe Polar Silk Road is no longer a projection: in October 2025, a Chinese ship reached Great Britain from the north in just 20 days, saving 40% of the time compared to the Suez Canal. This new connectivity turns Greenland into an “unsinkable aircraft carrier” in the middle of new sea routes. However, sea ice melting does not solve the problem on land. In the north of the island, extreme weather continues to force any mining machinery to hibernate for six months a year, maintaining profitability like an “optical illusion.” The treasure behind the ice wall. The attempt to take control of Greenland seems to hit a wall of environmental laws, hostile geology and, above all, a total absence of basic infrastructure. The Trump administration has invested hundreds of millions in mining companies, but the results remain buried under layers of permafrost. As Anthony Marchese summarizes in Fortune: “If you go to Greenland for its minerals, you’re talking about billions of dollars and an extremely long time.” While the White House sells the island as the definitive trophy of the new technological Cold War, the technical reality of 2026 dictates a simpler sentence: the island’s greatest treasure remains protected not by weapons or treaties, but by the lack of a road that reaches it. Image | Unsplash Xataka | The US has decided that Europe is its problem in Greenland. Germany wants to convince him that the problem is Russia

China has been dumping tons of sand into the ocean for 12 years. And now we are seeing islands emerging in the middle of nowhere

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It has been more than a decade since China began a striking strategy of territorial expansion: throwing tons of sand into the South China Sea. This is not unique to China and, in fact, Japan thus built an airport that soon it will be an underwater airportbut China is doing it massively and with one objective: to claim what is its own. And seeing how they raise these artificial islands is… hypnotic. Context. The end of 2013 marked a turning point in China: the country started to massively fill in seven of the reefs of the Nansha and Xisha archipelagos (Spratly and Paracels, respectively). In record time between December of that year and June 2015, China carried out the first phase of the operation: the filling phase. From 2015 onwards, they have dedicated themselves to consolidate that territory through the construction of infrastructure such as landing strips, hangars, ports, radars and support structures. According to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, between December 2015 and October 2015, China had built artificially about 12 km² of land on the Nansha reefs. While the United States said it with concern, the Chinese media confirmed the information with pride. Before and then How they do it. They did not use overly complex methods to do so. On the one hand, they cut the coral bottom and pumped sediments to shallow areas. The earth was deposited as fill to later build dikes and retaining walls around the reef. The next step was to deposit more fill and, finally, large steamrollers and shovels were compacting that earth to give consistency to the whole. The last thing was to create paving, landing strips, roads and other infrastructure. The result is more than 12 km², and put in context they represent “17 times more land claimed in 20 months than all the other international claimants have achieved during the last 40 years.” In action. Seeing the satellite photos that show the before and after, something easy to do using the history function of Google Earth, is interesting, but seeing a timelapse of how one of these new territories has been built is, as I said, something hypnotic. An example, the following video ‘tweet‘ (if you can’t see it, click on it): Narrative. What motivation does China have for such a deployment of resources and money? It depends who you ask. On the one hand, the Chinese government has defended that the creation of these islands serves the support in rescue missions on the high seasalso to fishing, scientific research, navigation support points thanks to these radars and the collection of data for its meteorological service. Finally, it also serves for defense if necessary. The neighbors are not convinced by the explanation and, in fact, think that it is a strategy that responds to a single interest: claiming territories that China considers its property. The Ministry of Defense of Japan assures that these infrastructures allow a permanent Chinese presence in waters that do not belong to it, with offensive capacity in practically the entire South China Sea. Military. Recent reports, such as the one from CSIS in 2025, underlines that China’s recent near-perennial activity in the South China Sea has only been possible thanks to that decade-old construction work. Western analyzes they point that the runways for aircraft are prepared for combat aircraft and land transport, as well as the presence of ports for warships, underground facilities and even missile platforms. The tension is evident because Beijing claims sovereignty over territories that its neighbors deny. Those neighbors are Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan or the Philippines. And Vietnam, in fact, is doing the same thing as China in 2013: throwing land into the sea. Their progress has also been considerable in a short time in an area that has become a real hotbed. The ecological impact. But beyond the intentions of each other, something undeniable that cannot be hidden under any narrative is the environmental damage that these artificial islands cause to their surroundings. In some articles it has been indicated that this ‘island’ desire has caused the loss of some 12 to 18 km² of reef, damaging some of the best preserved reefs in the region directly, but also affecting distant systems due to the ‘clouds’ of sediment formed during the dumping of sediments. Chinese scientific articles have also shown that these practices eliminate completely the ecosystem of the occupied area and negatively affects currents and sediment patterns, causing the aforementioned degradation of neighboring areas. However, the State Oceanic Administration of China defend that all projects were thoroughly evaluated and do not harm corals. The fault of it? Global trends such as sea acidification or climate change. Images | Ma Wukong In Xataka | China is building something that looks like an oil well. It is actually a nuclear bunker with a command center

hundreds of tons of rare earths

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During World War II, Nazi Germany built hundreds of bomb shelters as defensive frameworks of the Third Reich to protect the civilian population and critical infrastructure from Allied bombing. After the war, most were abandoned and passed for marginal uses until, decades later, one of them was converted into a high security warehouse. From war to the strategic reserve. At some undisclosed point in Frankfurt, a World War II anti-aircraft bunker, one of those concrete colossi that for decades were urban ruins or spaces converted to leisurehas acquired a new silent feature and deeply political: hosting one of the largest European warehouses of rare earths and critical metals. In the midst of a deterioration in global trade and with Europe facing a strategic dependence that I had been ignoring for years, this underground refuge has been transformed into an extreme security deposit for materials without which modern industry simply does not function. The Chinese shock and the race. The rbunker activation It is not coincidental. Since China tightened in Aprilus restrictions to the export of rare earths and strategic metals (in response to US tariffs), European inventories have remained below minimum. Tradium, one of the two large German importers of these materials, began to buy back stock to private investors and redistribute them directly to European companies in key sectors such as automotive, electronics, energy or defense. The move is reminiscent of a war economy in slow motion: it is not about speculation, but about surviving a prolonged supply disruption. An armored warehouse. The old bunker, renovated since 2011 after the first major warning from Beijing with the embargo on Japan over the Senkaku Islands, offers more than 2,400 square meters storage with different levels of security, protected by solid walls, cameras, opaque blinds and a four-ton armored door that gives access to a windowless chamber. Nikkei counted Inside, hundreds of blue and green drums loaded with neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium or terbium (all of Chinese origin) are lined up along with specialized metals such as gallium, germanium, indium, antimony, rhenium or hafnium. In total, some 300 tons that Tradium It is considered the largest known stock in Europe, although it admits that even larger and more discrete reserves may exist outside its knowledge. Skyrocketing prices. The impact of the chinese lock It is starkly reflected in the prices. Dysprosium has exceeded 900 dollars per kilomore than triple that before the restrictions, while terbium is around the 3,700 dollarsabout four times its previous value. Both are essential for improving the thermal resistance of electric motor magnets, making them critical parts for the electric vehicle industry. However, for European companies, price has taken a backseat: the real problem is the availability. After eight months of non-existent or minimal deliveries, even a half-year strategic stock begins to seem insufficient. Extreme security. The level of protection in the warehouse is such that even in the event of theft, the materials they could not be reintegrated in the industrial chain without certification, which reduces its value outside the legal circuit. In return, customers pay up to 2% annually of the stored value for logistics, which includes insurance. Meanwhile, European diplomacy is trying to buy time: the German Foreign Minister, Johann Wadephul, has traveled to Beijing to negotiate some type of relief, although he himself has acknowledged that there are no clear signs that China will grant general export licenses in the short term. Buried geopolitics. If you also want, the Frankfurt bunker is much more than a warehouse: it is a physical symbol of the extent to which geopolitics has penetrated the bowels of the European economy. Where civilians were once protected from bombings, today they protects the industry of strategic asphyxiation. Thus, the question that floats between drums and concrete walls is not how much rare earths will cost tomorrow, but when will they circulate again normally and whether Europe will arrive in time to build real autonomy before the next supply cut leaves it exposed again. Image | Berlin Wanderlust In Xataka | Germany didn’t know what to do with a dangerous Nazi bunker in the middle of Hamburg. The solution has radically changed the city In Xataka | Germany needs China’s rare earths at any price. And that price is giving you the future of your economy

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