Profit from the scramble for the Arctic

As Arctic ice cover melts and the world’s last wilderness becomes accessible, the first miners to stake a claim stand to do well, says James McKeigue. Here's how you could profit.

Millions of miles of barren ice, freezing temperatures and months of continuous darkness make the Arctic Circle one of the most inhospitable places on earth. The landscape is so unforgiving that it was only in the last century that humans reached the North Pole. Indeed, with earlier claims now widely discounted as bogus, historians believe 1926 was probably the first time a modern explorer crossed the Pole.

So while 20th-century trade and population growth created metropolises in the plains of Africa, the deserts of the Middle East and the jungles of Asia, the Arctic remained untouched. Apart from the odd scientific mission or Cold War-era radar base, the sole inhabitants of the Arctic Circle a ring that begins at latitude 66.46 north and covers almost 6% of the world's surface remained native peoples, such as the Inuit, who have lived there for over 1,000 years.

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James McKeigue

James graduated from Keele University with a BA (Hons) in English literature and history, and has a certificate in journalism from the NCTJ. James has worked as a freelance journalist in various Latin American countries.He also had a spell at ITV, as welll as wring for Television Business International and covering the European equity markets for the Forbes.com London bureau. James has travelled extensively in emerging markets, reporting for international energy magazines such as Oil and Gas Investor, and institutional publications such as the Commonwealth Business Environment Report. He is currently the managing editor of LatAm INVESTOR, the UK's only Latin American finance magazine.