Wyoming is at the center of an epic national race to turn on production of rare earth metals, needed for just about everything related to modern-day life — even as China races to shut off the export of these strategic minerals.
That makes Friday’s announcement that Wyoming Rare (USA) Inc. has found a home for a pilot plant with Western Research Institute in Laramie for its Halleck Creek project all the more important.
Based on the company’s exploration, the Halleck Creek site near Wheatland has the potential to be one of the world’s richest deposits of rare earths.
Having a pilot plant at a world-class research facility will do much to help move Wyoming Rare’s starting line forward, giving it just a bit of a head start in what has become an extremely high-stakes race not just for Wyoming, but the nation.
“The pilot plant is 100% necessary to really show the potential of (Halleck Creek),” Wyoming Rare (USA) President Joe Evers told Cowboy State Daily on Friday. “It will show potential investors that we can do what we said we could during the scoping study, as we work on the pre-feasibility part of this project.”
Western Research Institute is world-class, Evers added, and will be a great partner for the work that’s ahead.
“Because of our position on state-owned land, and the way that things work in Wyoming, just when you’re dealing with the Wyoming government and not the federal government, I would say that our project is uniquely situated to potentially meet those demands in a truncated timeline, compared to other projects that have to navigate some different things,” he said.
The Modern World Runs On Rare Earths
Speed is of particular urgency, and that urgency is something that has found rare bipartisan agreement in a time of ever-increasing partisanship.
Presidents of both major parties have prioritized rare earth production, including the outgoing Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration, who made it a priority during his first term in office, as did Obama before that.
The thing is, America is addicted to all 17 rare earth elements for its modern lifestyle.
Tantalum, rhodium, niobium, osmium, neodymium, promethium — pick a rare earth. We can’t pronounce them, but we are carrying them around with us wherever we go.
Tantalum, for example, is a key component of smartphones, video games and laptops. Rhodium finds a spot in catalytic converters and other car parts. Niobium is an alloy commonly used in gas pipelines. Osmium produces very hard alloys for needles and fountain pen tips, and the list goes on.
Refrigerators, dryers, vacuum cleaners, light bulbs, fiber optic internet, starters on gas-powered vehicles, cigarette lighters and ATMs — all of those and more require rare earths to function.
That includes the nuclear weapons under the care of F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, as well as all the computers that are associated with the nation’s nuclear triad.
As a tech trade war looms with China, rare earths are something America needs to figure out in a yesterday kind of way for both the sake of its economy and national security.
Evers is hopeful that the incoming Trump administration, along with a Republican-controlled Congress, will be able to lift some of the obstacles that have made standing up a new rare earths mine so time-consuming that it takes 10 years or more to do.
“The problem that everyone is racing to solve is a big one,” Evers said. “And I think folks are looking at it in the right way, to see how we can take away some of the hurdles that might exist, to bring everybody’s projects forward and give the United States the best chance to have that domestic supply, which I think everybody’s started to wake up to the fact that it’s pretty dang important to have.”
Wyoming Has A Commanding Lead
The partnership with Western Research Institute will also help Wyoming Rare to centralize its operations. The facility is going to house all its drill core and assay samples to date.
There will be other synergies as well, given the institute’s expertise, Evers said. The not-for-profit center is renowned for its work on advanced energy systems, environmental technologies, and materials research and technologies.
“They’ve been able to take the natural resources in the state of Wyoming and find new, interesting, novel ways to either produce them or provide different market avenues for them,” Evers said. “And they have a staff of like very high-quality engineers, chemical engineers that can help companies like ours go from drawing board into like actually piloting and testing out ideas in their facilities.”
They are an outstanding resource in Wyoming, Evers added, one that is perhaps not as well-known as it could be.
The center’s enthusiasm for the Halleck Creek project is yet another example of how Wyoming is taking the lead on issues that are critical to the nation, Evers suggested.
“Wyoming people are trying to think through this problem,” he said. “People, like those with Wyoming Energy Authority, and elected officials in Wyoming, are trying to get out ahead of this and solve it for the nation, but also in a way that benefits our local economies in the state.
“It is pretty groundbreaking, and I don’t think there’s any other state in the union, if you looked around, that has these types of projects as progressed as they are in Wyoming.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
