Among the glaciers and turquoise fjords of southwestern Greenland, a mining company is betting rock similar to the one the Apollo missions brought back from the moon can address some of Earth's climate change problems.

"This rock was created in the early days in the formation of our planet," says geologist Anders Norby-Lie, who began exploring anorthosite at the remote mountain landscape in Greenland nine years ago.

More recently, it has excited mining companies and investors hoping to sell it as a relatively sustainable source of aluminum as well as an ingredient to make fibreglass.