Wyoming's rare earth mining companies are scaling up for what could be the biggest opportunity in decades with a growing demand for minerals that power everything from smartphones to fighter jets.
Melissa "Mel" Sanderson, a board director at American Rare Earths, said the expanding need for rare earth minerals is crucial for the state’s exploding rare earth industry.
"There is an angle for Wyoming as it is the host of the single largest deposit and has a couple of other deposits in the critical minerals space including uranium," Sanderson told Cowboy State Daily. "Wyoming has the capacity to meet the urgent needs identified in the agenda for this hearing. Halleck Creek is the largest upcoming resource, and it is in Wyoming."
Halleck Creek is described as a 2.63-billion-ton resource rich in the rare earth ore allanite.
In March, the Bear Lodge rare earth mining and refining project near Upton announced $553 million in debt financing from the Export-Import Bank of the United States.
It’s focusing on mining and processing one of the “world’s premier bastnasite deposits,” according to Rare Element Resources.
The companies developing projects in Wyoming want the state to surpass California, current home of the only established and active rare earth mine in the U.S.
National Focus
The importance of the United States developing domestic production and processing of rare earth minerals was the focus of a hearing held by the U.S. House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations last week.
While the focus of the hearing wasn’t Wyoming specifically, what was discussed is crucial for the state’s expanding rare earth industry.
Kelli Kast, vice president of Rare Element Resources Ltd., said that bodes well forWyoming’s role in meeting demand for rare earths.
“This administration supports a domestic supply of critical minerals, including rare earths, and removing barriers to securing that supply must happen,” Kast told Cowboy State Daily.
“Overall, we are incredibly pleased to see the administration and congressional focus on securing a secure domestic rare earth supply chain,” said Kast, pointing to her company’s Bear Lodge deposit.
She also touted the company’s “innovative rare earth processing and separation technology” at its demonstration plant in Upton.
“The hearing rightly spotlighted the national security and economic risks of relying on foreign adversaries, particularly China, for minerals vital to technology, defense, and advanced energy,” wrote Kast in a follow up email Tuesday.
“Rare Element Resources shares the concerns about lengthy permitting processes and regulatory barriers that delay domestic projects, as well as the need for robust investment in processing capacity to keep value in the U.S.,” she said.
Dependence On China
There’s also ongoing concern about America’s dependence on China for the materials that keep the modern world running. During his first administration, President Trump declared China’s stranglehold on the world’s rare earth processing a national emergency.
Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Alabama, chaired the hearing, and pointed to data from the U.S. Geological Survey, which shows the U.S. is 100% dependent on imports for 12 of the 50 minerals on the government's critical list, and more than 50% dependent for another 29.
"The U.S. used to be the leading producer and refiner of many critical minerals, including rare earth elements," Palmer said at the hearing. "By the late 1990s, however, most of this industry dissolved and moved overseas."
Palmer revealed that in 2019, a U.S. rare earth mine shipped 98% of its raw materials to China for processing because the U.S. lacks processing facilities.
"I cannot convey the seriousness of this issue enough," Palmer said. "This is an economic issue and an issue of national security."
Ramp Up Processing
Developing more processing capacity in Wyoming and other rare earth producing states has long been a goal of federal policy-makers.
“Policy must match market reality,” said Abigail Hunter from the SAFE Center for Critical Mineral Strategy. “If restrictions like tariffs or sourcing rules outpace available supply, we risk undercutting U.S. manufacturing rather than strengthening it.
“The U.S. cannot secure its mineral supply chains without fixing the processing bottleneck. Today, China possesses 65% of global lithium refining, over 70% of battery grade nickel and cobalt, and more than 90% of graphite and rare earth processing.”
In just the past two years, China imposed export controls on rare earth minerals needed by the U.S. defense and technology sectors, said Hunter.
Katie Sweeney from the National Mining Association put it bluntly: "China controls roughly 85% of the mine-to-metal processing capacity.”
Time To Streamline?
One mining executive told the committee that projects can require more than 90 permits, and Palmer noted that it can take 10-20 years just to get processing plants operational.
"The U.S. has the second longest timeline for a mine to be approved," said Rep. Troy Balderson of Ohio at the hearing. “And we've heard anecdotes of projects waiting decades for approval to break ground or begin operations."
Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw didn't pull punches about what's been holding America back: "Our laws and regulations have made it virtually impossible to open up new mines in this country, and even, even when we do mine, we still have to ship the raw materials overseas just to get them refined because we've offshored our processing capabilities."
Palmer offered his take on why the U.S. rare earth industry is now playing catch-up.
"It is a combination of things — including burdensome permitting and other regulations, uncertainty in commodity pricing, market manipulation, and an increasingly litigious society,” said Palmer. “This has made our domestic environment unattractive to investors and companies as a result."
Sanderson, with Wyoming’s American Rare Earths, said in a follow up email to Cowboy State Daily that she is seeing the permitting process begin to speed up.
“A uranium mine in Utah was just permitted after a 14-day review,” wrote Sanderson. “Critics are concerned that these timelines are completely unrealistic to allow for any sort of responsible environmental or social review.”
Billionaire Bashing
Not all legislators are aligned on the issue of expansion. Democrats accused Republicans of prioritizing tax cuts for the wealthy over investments in mineral processing.
Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-New York, argued that "tax cuts for billionaires do not strengthen our supply chains. They do not help build battery factories or lithium processing plants or rare earth recycling facilities."
Clarke took aim at Republican priorities: "Instead of supporting clean energy innovation and domestic supply chain resilience, Republicans are fighting to extend and expand tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans at the expense of investments in climate, jobs and national security."
Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette pointed to Democratic accomplishments: "The bipartisan infrastructure law and inflation reduction act passed in the last Congress invested hundreds of billions of dollars to reshore American manufacturing jobs and build momentum towards durable domestic supply chains."
Kast with Wyoming’s Rare Element Resources remains optimistic about the nation’s need for rare earth minerals transcending the divisive political climate.
“We’re encouraged by the bipartisan support for solutions like permitting reform, federal incentives, and international partnerships, which align with our mission to develop a sustainable domestic rare earth supply chain right here in Wyoming,” she said.
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
