NUUK, Greenland—Taatsi Olsen knows what it takes to start searching for minerals in Greenland.

In a warehouse on the outskirts of the capital, Nuuk, he walked through the nuts and bolts of mining exploration in the cold, sparsely populated country. Near a wall of tools and harnesses, there was a small trailer that would be flown to remote sites by helicopter, essential in a place where no roads go from town to town.