Joe Stopper started his first day at Ramaco Resources on Monday, bringing with him a unique perspective from his front-row seat in the President Donald Trump administration's push for domestic critical minerals production.
As a senior director for the White House National Energy Dominance Council and senior advisor to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum during the first six months of the Trump administration, Stopper witnessed firsthand how Wyoming figures prominently in federal planning for rare earth elements and critical minerals.
When asked whether Wyoming and rare earths came up in White House conversations, Stopper was emphatic.
"Oh, absolutely,” he told Cowboy State Daily. "Ramaco did, and so did the topic of rare earths and critical minerals. It was a topic of almost daily conversation given its importance in terms of the key economic and national security goals of the administration."
Stopper's path to Ramaco brings together Wall Street finance experience with recent government policy work.
"I spent 12 years at Yorktown Partners, which is a New York-based private equity firm that makes energy-related investments around the world, and then was offered an opportunity in early 2025 to join the Trump administration," he said. "In both places, which are closely intertwined, critical minerals and rare earths were a top priority.”
The connection to Ramaco isn't new for Stopper.
"Yorktown was the first institutional investor in Ramaco about 15 years ago. So, I've known the management for more than a decade," he said. "The first Yorktown investments in Ramaco have returned more than tenfold in terms of value."
Stopper’s Skill Set
Stopper outlined his specific responsibilities at the company.
“We're going to make sure it's capitalized appropriately and that we have the right counterparts in terms of commercial partners and also government partners,” he said. "I'm unique among members of the team in that I come from multiple sides of it, both the government and the business side. So the government and finance side makes me a bit unique."
He said good news for those invested in and watching Wyoming’s emerging rare earth and critical minerals industry is, "From the government side, it's clear that the government is willing and able to support this industry as it becomes more U.S-based. And from that standpoint, I bring experience and relationships and knowledge about how and how the government can help."
Ramaco announced Stopper's hiring as senior vice president of planning and analysis last week, with Chairman and CEO Randall Atkins stating, "Joe's experience not only in energy related financing but also his recent work in the senior levels of energy policy at the Trump Administration will help us tremendously as we move forward with our rapidly evolving businesses."
Expansion Plans
The hiring comes as Ramaco announced expansion ambitions for the Brook Mine.
In a Sept. 18 shareholder letter, the company detailed plans to more than double production from 2 million tons per year to 5 million tons annually, which would increase critical mineral oxide production from 1,240 tons to about 3,400 tons per year.
The company said it plans to expand from roughly 4,500 acres to "our entire almost 16,000 acres of control" and will "actively engage with federal and state officials to expand the existing approved Brook Mine permit."
Ramaco's Brook Mine is located about 7 miles north of Sheridan in Sheridan County. The company acquired the mine in 2011 and has been exploring its rare earth potential since 2019 in collaboration with the Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory.
The mine has been called "the largest unconventional rare earth deposit in North America" by the National Energy Technology Laboratory, according to the company's shareholder letter.
In June, Atkins explained what makes the Brook Mine deposit in a coal seam unconventional.
"Virtually all rare earths are found in hard rock minerals, which is the conventional type of deposit that they're found in,” he said. “Once you've mined them, you have to essentially break them up, crush them, grind them in order to process them. And the problem with both the mining as well as the processing is that they have high levels of radioactive tailings."
In contrast, he said Brook Mine coal "is so soft that you can hold it in your hand, and it just starts to crumble.”
This softer material eliminates many of the processing challenges that force conventional rare earth mining to rely on Chinese facilities.
“The processing here is critical,” said Stopper, underlining the Trump administration’s push to increase mining and processing rare earths and critical minerals in the U.S.
Ramaco operates the nation's first integrated carbon resource research and development facility, the iCAM Center, adjacent to the mine, along with the iPark Center intended for coal-to-products manufacturing.
For Stopper, the new role means spending significantly more time in Wyoming.
"I'll be there all of next week," he said. "Over time, the percentage of time I spend up there will only go up is my understanding and intent."
Stopper went on to emphasize what he sees as the upside of Ramaco’s plans for operations in Wyoming.
"The folks of Wyoming should be proud of the fact that the pipeline offers a potential solution and supply, which is entirely domestic,” said Stopper. "It's tremendously exciting for the people of Wyoming and for the entire country."
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
