Aleqa Hammond looked set to be Greenland's first female prime minister on Wednesday after winning 42 percent of votes in elections on a platform of greater control and heavier taxation of foreign mining.

The opening of the country of 57,000, a quarter the size of the US, to foreign miners has sparked a backlash from its traditional Inuit people.

Hammond's Siumut party won around 14 seats in the 31-seat parliament, meaning she will need to form a coalition. Prime Minister Kuupik Kleist won around 34 percent of votes, according to official results published on Wednesday by the national KNR broadcaster.

With sea ice thawing and new shipping routes opening in the Arctic, the former Cold War ally of the West has emerged from isolation and gained geopolitical attention thanks to its untapped mineral wealth and potential offshore oil and gas.

"Thanks to my supporters," Hammond told KNR. "It was a huge relief to have won."

There is still a broad consensus in Greenland that foreign investment is needed to help bring in revenues and wean the self governing country off an annual grant from former colonial master Denmark that pays for more than half its budget.

Hammond wants foreign miners to pay more but will also seek to lift a ban on mining radioactive materials that has stopped some plans to develop rare earths deposits, crucial in 21st technology like smart phones.

But the result of the election highlighted how many more traditional Inuits from fishermen to seal hunters felt Kleist had embraced foreign investors too quickly.

The government passed a law that critics said allowed large companies to bring in cheap labor to work on construction projects. Hammond has promised to revise the law.

Hammond has also said she wants to levy royalties on companies when they come to Greenland. Kleist wants to tax companies only when they start making profits.

Changes are coming fast. Ice floes often are so thin that hunters can no longer use dog sledges and many Inuits fear miners exploiting Greenland's resources may employ more foreigners than locals.

"This government talks too much about mining and not enough about fishermen," said Job Heilmann, who hunts for seal and reindeer and fishes for halibut.

"The central issue here is who will run the country?" Hammond told Reuters on Tuesday. "People feel that it is foreign companies who have too much say here."

Reuters