Amid a series of rock formations with nicknames like the Quartz Swarm and UFO Mountain, a cluster of red dots are marked along a ridge overlooking an iceberg-flecked fjord. The goldmine-to-be lies miles south-east of Nuuk in the barren, concrete-grey mountains near Nanotarlik - Place of Polar Bears - a tiny village where locals scrape a living through seal hunting.
If it succeeds, it has the potential to make Mr Hughes and his colleagues very rich, and turn Greenland into a modern-day Klondike, reversing the decline of villages like Nanotarlik population 1, and falling. Iraq cemetery containing graves of British servicemen is destroyed. Telegraph reporter eats whale meat. Norway braces itself as scramble for Pole position begins.
Russia leads scramble for Arctic. Will the Arctic reveal its treasures? Rare earths: West tackles China's monopoly. By a mischievous quirk of nature, the very melting of the polar icecaps is opening up access to the substances that are key to a hi-tech, low-carbon future. If Greenland is the new frontier, then towns like Nuuk are its boom towns in waiting. It has three sets of traffic lights, the only ones in a country the size of Western Europe.
Houses often lack flushing toilets, village shops stock everything from nappies to guns, and to this day, many locals earning a living by hunting seals, whales and polar bears. The difference is that now, they film prize catches on their mobile phones - and share it with friends in the next village miles away via Facebook.
Right now, though, the talk on Greenlandic Facebook forums is no longer just about hunting, shooting and fishing, but the prospect of a minerals and energy boom that has the potential to change life here forever. To what extent it is commercially exploitable will depend on fluctuations in commodity prices. But the US Geological Survey believes the oil reserves alone may run to 40 billion barrels - equivalent to that drilled off the Scottish coast since Per capita, it could equate to a fortune, given that it would be shared out among just 57, people.
