CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The developer of what would be the first new coal mine in Wyoming in decades plans to process the fossil fuel to extract hard-to-get metals that are crucial for tech products and military hardware.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright, former West Virginia U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, and Wyoming's congressional delegation are on the VIP list for a groundbreaking ceremony Friday at the Ramaco Resources, Inc., Brook Mine outside Ranchester in far northern Wyoming.
Rare earth elements are a family of 17 metallic elements with unusual properties that make them useful for specific applications. Neodymium and dysprosium are used in the permanent magnets of wind turbines, lanthanum in electric and hybrid car batteries.
Yttrium and terbium have critical military uses, including in targeting devices.
China supplies almost 90% of the world's rare earths. Concern about continued access to the substances has been a focus of recent negotiations between China and the U.S., and led the Trump administration to try to encourage more production domestically.
Rare earths aren't especially rare but so scattered they are difficult to bring together in useful quantities. Currently the only U.S. rare earths mine is at Mountain Pass in California.
Analysis by U.S. national laboratories show the Brook Mine coal contains valuable quantities of the rare earths neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium, as well as the critical minerals gallium, scandium and germanium, according to a Ramaco letter to shareholders on July 1.
''We would intend to mine it here in Wyoming, process it here in Wyoming and sell it to domestic customers including the government,'' Ramaco CEO Randall Atkins said Thursday.