A Modern-Day Gold Rush Is Unfolding in Wyoming. America’s Most Fearsome Weapons Depend On It.

The U.S. is opening its first new rare earths mine in 70 years and the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Courtney Linder

Popular Mechanics 

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Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

• In the U.S., rare earth elements have surged in demand due to a bitter trade war with China, which controls about 90 percent of the world’s supply.

For the first time in 70 years, a new rare earths mine is opening in America following a July groundbreaking ceremony.

Brook Mine in Wyoming is estimated to contain up to 1.7 million tons of rare earths and critical minerals including gallium, germanium, scandium, terbium, dysprosium, neodymium, and praseodymium.

A small coal mining company based in Lexington, Kentucky, that is mostly known for supplying the steelmaking industry is making an unexpected pivot into America’s trade war with China—by quite literally digging into the rare earths business.

Ramaco Resources operates just three active mines throughout Appalachia. In 2011, it purchased its fourth mine outside of Sheridan, Wyoming, for $2 million, eyeing more coal production. But in May 2023, when Ramaco began exploratory drilling of the 4,500 acres that are fully permitted for mining, it discovered a major windfall: a cache of rare earth elements and critical mineral deposits tucked inside claystone rock and shales above and below the coal seams.

Rare earths are a group of 17 elements composed of scandium, yttrium, and the lanthanides on the periodic table. Meanwhile, critical mineral deposits of elements like lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and graphite are not considered rare earths, but as their name suggests, they’re critical to in the domestic production of fighter jets, semiconductors, nuclear reactor control rods, and more. Both are essential to national defense, especially since China banned most of them for export in April, despite controlling about 90 percent of the market.