Over 2 Billion Metric Tons of Rare Earth Minerals Discovered in Wyoming
If the bureaucrats and politicians get out of the way, America is poised to become the world’s leading producer of rare earth minerals.
The last time we visited the issue of rare earth minerals at Legal Insurrection, the Chinese had shut down the export of 2 important rare earth metals used in semiconductor manufacture: gallium and germanium.
In December, China imposed a trade ban on rare earth extraction equipment.
The second shot was new trade ban imposed by China on specialized rare earth production equipment, which means rivals will have to develop their own processes for extracting commercial quantities of metals needed in a variety of technologies.
Rare earths have been a Chinese specialty for decades thanks to large deposits of ore and through the application of smart mining and treatment methods which evolved just in time to catch surging demand.
While not household names it would not be possible to run the modern world without neodymium, praseodymium, terbium, or dysprosium, four of the 17 elements that make up the rare earth family.
Now I have some good news to share. Our country could soon surpass China as the world leader in rare earth minerals after more than 2.34 billion metric tons were discovered in Wyoming.
American Rare Earths Inc announced that the reserves near Wheatland dramatically surpass the Asian nation’s 44 million metric tons, saying it ‘exceeded our wildest dreams’ after drilling only about 25 percent of the property.
The company has a stake in 367 mining claims across 6,320 acres of land in the Halleck Creek Project, along with four Wyoming mineral leases on 1,844 acres on the same project now called Cowboy State Mine.
The types of minerals at the site are used in smartphones, hybrid car motors and military technologies – among others.
Since China’s extraction ban, one company, American Rare Earths, has been working hard to expand our nation’s access options. It appears they may have struck the mother lode.
American Rare Earths Inc. has its sights on thousands of acres of land near Wheatland, Wyoming. The company disclosed in a technical report on Wednesday that it found 64% more rare earth minerals than it had originally envisioned in a March 2023 assessment of the land.
The newly disclosed figure of 2.34 billion metric tons of rare earth minerals found southwest of Wheatland by American Rare Earths Inc. could dwarf in size the 1.2 million metric ton estimates in northeastern Wyoming that one of its competitors claimed was one of the biggest discoveries in the world.
A metric ton equals about 2,200 pounds while a ton is 2,000 pounds.
“This exceeded our wildest dreams, and we only drilled on about 25% of the property,” said Donald Swartz, CEO of American Rare Earths.
The company is the U.S.-based unit of an Australian-founded exploration company working in Wyoming.
Another company is also working on another potentially rich site for these valuable minerals.
Ramaco Resources revealed it had found a deposit of rare minerals near Sheridan in Wyoming, that could have a value of $37 billion.
Ramaco Resources CEO Randall Atkins told Cowboy State Daily: “We only tested it for 100, 200 feet, which is about the maximum you’d ever want to do a conventional coal mine.
I can only hope we will eventually have politicians and policy implementers that permit us to develop these valuable resources.
Now all we need is an administration that will letbus dig them up. https://t.co/lbW02kXQvZ
— Tony Lima (@TonyLimaPOL) February 9, 2024
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Comments
I expect the entire state of Wyoming to be declared a wildlife sanctuary by the BLM.
Bureau Land Management. First time I read that I thought about blacks rioting about george floyd. Wyoming is pretty much off limits to everything. Trying building new house in Jackson for example. Its all zoned off limits for bison to wander around.
Yes, Bureau of Land Management.
The same agency that wet their panties over motorcycling in the desert allowed Burning Man to do far more damage than a knobby tire.
Blacks discovered rare earth minerals first. You’ve heard of vibranium, right? Wakanda forever!
In other news, China purchases thousands of acres of land near Wheatland WY.
I grew up just down the road from that site. I have family right near by. I know all those who own the land there, some for several generations. None of it has been sold, none of it is for sale at the moment, and there is ZERO Chinese presence/ownership in that area.
China about to reap the benefits of owning 10% China Joe. Those minerals will never see the light of day..
Hopefully the upcoming election will change things, including a major downsizing of both BLMs.
It will soon be a “protected” national preserve
American Rare Earths, Inc. is an Australian company. It might have been nice to let your readers know this.
It’s absolutely INSANE that Congress allows foreign-owned enterprises to possess mineral rights.
It’s not insane at all. You can bet those Congressmen were paid handsomely for those mineral rights. The insanity is the perpetual re-election of those crooks!
When one major political party is dominated by people who believe no mining should be done in America at all, it’s not surprising that companies capable of starting and running a mine are more likely to be found elsewhere. If you want American companies to have the expertise and scale to exploit mineral deposits, you have to allow them to operate profitably. Otherwise, you drive all production overseas to places willing to let their companies work, learn and grow.
That was in the story.
“The company is the U.S.-based unit of an Australian-founded exploration company working in Wyoming.”
Now you tell us!!!
🤭🤭🤭🤭
Great story, Leslie, and let’s hope we can move towards eliminating our reliance on China for anything.
Not only was it in the story you didn’t read:
“The company was founded and incorporated in Australia, but since its primary assets and markets are in the United States, ARR has decided to redomicile as a United States company incorporated in Delaware. Building an American board of directors and management team, the company is poised to become a leading rare earth production company in North America.”
http://tinyurl.com/44ks36xt
At least Hillary Clinton wasn’t around to give it all away to Russia for a steal.
Uranium One got a great deal on that purchase.
No, it didn’t, and Clinton had nothing to do with it.
Not only did she not have veto power over it, and not only did the State Dept’s representative on the advisory committee say that she never spoke to him about it, but even if 0bama (the only person whose approval was needed) had turned it down, the WY uranium mines were only a small and unimportant part of the company, so the transaction would have gone ahead anyway, and the company would simply have had to dispose of those mines to an approved (or American) buyer.
Yeah. $145 million to the Clinton Foundation. Sounds like a steal to me. Yet, you a true Democrat would NEVER admit that the Clintons could do anything wrong.
Propagandist.
Liar. How dare you call me a Democrat?
How could it be a steal when they paid the owner full price? Anything they might have paid the Clintons would have been on top of that. And why would they pay the Clintons, when Hillary had no power to approve or veto the transfer of the mines, and certainly not to veto the entire deal, which was completely outside US jurisdiction?
If they were interested enough in the WY mines to bribe someone to get it approved, surely the person to bribe would have been 0bama, who actually had the power to veto the transfer of the mines, rather than Clinton who did not.
In addition to which, there were no donations to the Clinton Foundation from anyone involved in the deal, during the period in question.
“Liar. How dare you call me a Democrat?”
You told everyone you are a registered Democrat, leftist.
There is no Ministry of Truth cleaning up your past remarks.
You are a fucking liar who has never contributed anything worthwhile to this forum. I said I was registered to vote as a Democrat. As are most Republicans in places where the D primary is the election. That does not make me a Democrat, and it certainly doesn’t make me a leftist. Calling me one is slander.
PS: Given where he lives, I think it likely that Prof J is registered as a Democrat.
Im a registered Republican, FWIW.
Propagandist.
As Azathoth states: YOU on a post not more than a week ago said you were a Democrat.
You have no credibility here. Your word is as good as BarkE, Thad Jarvis, and JR. I have dumped sh! in a toilet that has more value than your word.
Fûck off, Liar.
Another fucking liar. I have never said I was a Democrat. I said I was registered to vote as a Democrat. You know very well that that is not the same thing at all.
Climate alarmists won’t permit development of natural resources of any kind. Its not limited to fossil fuels. It will be zoned protected habitat, and americans will be forced to import from other countries, which doesn’t reduced the global impact one bit. Biden green new deal is trillion dollar fraud.
It may not reduce the global impact, but it sure will increase the size of the wallets of certain oligarchs.
I’d really like this to be true but look up the company making the claim.
It’s a penny stock company and possibly making pump and dump type claims.
Some of this “news” happened a couple of years ago, not yesterday.
Did they find anything from Canned Heat??? 🙂
What’s missing here is who owns the land, and what the process is to mine.
From another source:
“American Rare Earths wants to mine and process these metals – particularly neodymium and praseodymium – through its Wyoming Rare (USA) Inc. unit. That business controls 367 mining claims on 6,320 acres of a mix of state, federal and private land across the Halleck Creek Project area near Wheatland, and four Wyoming mineral leases on 1,844 acres on the same project”
The exact amount of land that is owned by the state or the feds isn’t disclosed, but the suggestion in some articles is that enough of the land is controlled by the state and feds that this “discovery” (like that of its competitor) isn’t worth much unless there is a legal permit to mine on public land.
my understanding is that in a lot of cases, LANDOWNERS do not own MINERAL (underground) rights. So a ranch that runs cattle is suddenly a mine and can do nothing about it.
if I am wrong, please correct me.
True.
Sometimes they don’t even own the rain that falls on their own roof. Google the guy who got dinged for that. It all belongs to *our* aquifer.
I won’t suggest defying any law. I will point out that “Irish Democracy” has a history extending back well past poaching the King’s deer.
I’m no expert on this, but there are plenty of legal, privately-worked mines (hobby mines, but still) on the square miles of state land that abut my property, which I ride past frequently. My understanding is that if you want to mine a chunk of government land, all you have to do is file the right forms and those mineral rights are yours… and it’s so easy, a retiree can do it.
I don’t see how we can possibly mine rare earths without small children being used.
Or is this why so many illegal alien children are being trafficked from the border?
Only about half of adult illegals who come here work hard (and that’s a conservative estimate). The rest suck off the government teat.
Those who come here as children, as well as anchor babies who are born here, are just as lazy as any American who sucks the government teat.
And that’s the good news. The bad news is the government teat has just about been sucked dry.
True. Now work harder to pay your “fair share” of taxes.
More people riding in the wagon, less people pushing the wagon.
We are all screwed.
Gaia does not want these minerals mined. That is why she put them in the United States.
What? A new trade ban imposed by China on specialized rare earth production equipment?
Since they steal every production process (all tech and processing is required to be disclosed to the Chinese to have an item produced there) anyway, just steal it back, reverse engineer it, or blatantly copy it.
Good enough for the ChiComs, good enough for us.
Now if we can just keep Biden from selling it to them outright…
welll
they did have that big hit in the 70’s
since it benefits the tech lobby, there will be ZERO interference from the government. They could slaughter the last spotted owl and it wouldn’t stop them.
Now if we’re talking coal to heat and power our homes… well sorry, there’s a banana slug nearby, stop all activity.
Biden* signs executive order banning their mining in 3,2, 1…
Obama prevented exploitation of oil and gas resources, as well as litium deposits, simply by using the Antiquities Act to add millions of acres to national parks – even created a half dozen brand new “national monuments”, all vastly larger than the actual area anyone would ever want to visit.
He single-handedly made 550 MILLION acres off limits for energy development or mining. All at the stroke of a pen by POTUS.
There’s never been anything actually “rare” about “rare earth minerals”. The only thing that makes them rare is that most governments on the planet prohibit mining for them.
National monuments, not national parks. The Antiquities Act doesn’t give the president any power over national parks.
The Antiquities Act was never a good idea, and should be repealed. There is no reason to have national monuments. The national parks law is more than sufficient, and has the advantage that the president can’t declare one all by himself.
The so-called rare earths are actually pretty common. But they appear in fairly low concentrations in most of the places they’re found, and extracting them from the other material is not pretty, involving use of some pretty noxious chemicals. The granola chompers will pitch a fit when a U.S. company lays out what will be required to refine the raw materials into finished products usable for electronics, et al.
Gallium and Germanium are not rare earth metals. So what else is wrong in this article?
China will try to buy any company that attempt to mine and process this.