The batteries in your cell phone, the glass in solar panels and other important materials all depend on rare earth minerals. That's leading to a new mining rush in the West.
Mining these rare elements in southeast Wyoming and in other places around the Mountain West are sure to have big impacts on nearby communities and the environment. American Rare Earths owns about 8,000 acres of mining claims called the Halleck Creek Project on a mix of private, federal and state land. The company announced promising results from exploratory drilling on the Halleck Creek earlier this year, determining there are about five million tons of rare earth oxides on their claims.
Rare Earth minerals are a group of 17 little-known elements like neodymium, praseodymium and scandium. These elements are in products many use on a daily basis, like specialty glass products and batteries.
The U.S. Geological Survey has designated most of them as critical for economic and national security. China currently dominates the rare earths market. With only one operating mine in the U.S., the Biden administration wants to expand the domestic supply of these minerals, as well as other “green” metals like cobalt and lithium.
Will Walkey from Wyoming Public Media has been reporting on this story for the Mountain West News Bureau and Idaho Matters senior producer Samantha Wright spoke with him about his work. You can read their full conversation here:
WRIGHT: Okay. Will, your story talked about how there could be almost 5 million tons of rare earth minerals underground in America. Is that right?
WALKEY: You know much more than that, actually. There's 5 million tons of rare earth elements just under one claim that I went to in Wyoming. And most companies that you read about and some that I talk to have said, you know, there's plenty of these all over the West, you know, and rare earth elements. What's interesting about them is, despite their name, they're not actually that rare. You know, they're found all over the earth's crust. But what is unique about them is they're not usually in concentrations that are actually mineable in an economical sense, so to speak. So, you know, these mines, like the one that I went to in Wyoming, are interesting and unique and exciting for mining companies because they're in a concentration where if we start digging a big hole, it's going to actually make them some money.
WRIGHT: Wow. You know, I thought one of the shocking bits of the story is that the the place you went to in Wyoming, you said that they couldn't get a mine up and running for at least 30 years. That's some long term planning.
WALKEY: So it's not exactly accurate. What I what I meant by the 30 years is that's going to be when it's sort of the full scale operation. I mean, yeah, when we talk about rare earths, this is a long term play, especially in the Mountain West. It's going to be about five years until actual drilling activity starts. But, you know, it starts small. And and, you know, this is a remote part of Wyoming. We got to hire people. We got to build roads. We got to get infrastructure. So, yeah, that 30 year timeline is sort of when we're talking about, you know, massive, massive production scale.
WRIGHT: When you mentioned it is a small place and that places like this would a mine or major industry comes in, it's going to dramatically change not just the landscape, but but the character of everything around it.
WALKEY: Yeah, absolutely. And Wyoming has a big mining history, as does Idaho and other states around the West. But this town that I went to, which is the closest one to this town, it's probably where most of the workers at a future mine would live. It's called Wheatland. It's got about 3500 people. It's mostly agricultural. You know, there's the local school and the local hospital system. One of the person you know, one of the people that I talked to for this story said sort of one of the main big things happening in Wheatland is that, a, Wendy's is coming in town, right? So, you know, in a boom bust cycle that energy and mining often brings, you know, it's going to be an influx of people quickly. And, you know, for a community like Wheatland, the question is how do we make it sustainable and still enjoyable for those that are already living there?
WRIGHT: That's right. And and because it will change the character. And it's a it's a it's a big deal. I mean, it's a really big deal. You mentioned infrastructure, and I hadn't even thought about that. I mean, along with how the the character will change, you do have to do all those things in these remote areas, build roads and other things that that that will be needed to sustain the mine.
WALKEY: One thing that didn't make it into my story is that that the economic development director in Wheatland told me is, you know, there's only a few dozen homes available in the town of Wheatland, like available for sale right now. And we're talking potentially hundreds of jobs that could, you know, you add on the families that come with that. So you know, when you even just look at housing and where people are going to live, we don't really even have the room for it now. So, you know, the 30 year timeline or even a 5 to 10 year timeline, depending on how quickly things get approved, you know, communities should start thinking now if they're near a mining site about what it might look like if a bunch of people start showing up.
WRIGHT: That's right. And you also talked about there are geologists who say there could be more of these kinds of rare earth deposits in Montana, Colorado. And and, of course, this piqued our interest, Idaho.
WALKEY: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, for the entire West, the so-called green energy boom, which includes, you know, these minerals that I studied in the story, but also things that your listeners are probably familiar with, including cobalt and lithium. You know, the West is an interesting geological place with a huge history of providing some of the main rocks that we like to dig up, like uranium and coal even. And, you know, I think as we transition away from fossil fuels and toward green energy, which still does need some of these rare minerals, the West is going to be a big part of that story.
WRIGHT: And you touched on just a little bit that this would be the one in Wyoming would be an open pit mine and that that has led to in the past, you know, concerns environmentalists not liking open pit mines. That's that's another thing we have to balance in there is, is the environment.
WALKEY: Not only environmental concerns. That's absolutely right. But also when we think about, you know, the greater question of what it's going to look like in terms of green mineral mining around the West, also the impact on indigenous rights. You know, a lot of the nickel and cobalt and lithium mines that are being proposed and probably will be proposed around our region are going to be near Indigenous communities and they might have to bear the brunt of some of those environmental impacts and social impacts. Right. And environmental impacts being dust, for instance, and air quality pollution from open pit mining or water pollution from runoff and streams and the tailings of these mines. And so, you know, a lot of this is going to come down to how much will these mining companies keep their promises? You know, the ones that I talked to say they want to clean this up. We'll see if that actually happens. But I think it's going to be up to the journalists and the local community members around here to kind of hold them accountable.
WRIGHT: You mentioned in the story a lithium mine in Nevada that that has run into some trouble with tribal communities.
WALKEY: Yes, this is something that's been covered heavily by regional and also national journalists. It's it's right near a very sacred site for a tribal community in Nevada. But but lithium, similar to some of these rare earth minerals that I studied around Wyoming. Lithium is used in so many things that we enjoy every day, just as citizens of the United States. You know, these minerals are used in cell phone batteries. You know, a lot of them are used in like wind turbine generation and glass and solar panels even. So, you know, like I said, as we continue to transition away from fossil fuels and towards new sources of energy, we're going to need more of these mines and more of these conflicts are going to keep happening.
WRIGHT: Well, if you like your cell phone, you're going to need the parts that make it work.
WALKEY: Exactly.
WRIGHT: So. Well, what was it like to go out to this spot in in Wyoming on public land? I mean, is it is it pretty out there or is there anything out there besides the town?
WALKEY: Yeah. This is a really remote landscape. There's a couple ranches in between these mining claims, which I should say are are huge. You know, we're talking thousands of acres here, and it's on a mix of public land and private land and state land. You know, those that have lived in the West for a long time know, you know, the checkerboard pattern of land ownership that exists in our region. Right? So I wasn't able to see, you know, the entire site by any means, but I got to do some hiking around. It's it's beautiful. I mean, it's it's rolling hills, you know, it's it's certainly not crowded by any means, but it's it's big open space in Wyoming down a dirt road. I mean it's kind of one of the reasons I like living here is to explore places like these. And you know, you're looking around when you kind of, you know, take a busy you know, you're looking around after you take a tough hike to the top of a mountain. You know, I'm breathing heavy, but I'm looking out at this largely untouched landscape. You know, you don't really get that very much throughout the United States. And Wyoming is just one of those places where open space is still here. And, you know, in terms of the site, you could barely even see there's been some exploratory experimental drilling activity, but didn't really see much. So I was looking mostly at cacti and animal droppings and deer trails and things like that.
WRIGHT: Wow. Okay. So what's next for the for the Wyoming site and for the West when it comes to these rare earth minerals?
WALKEY: Right. I think a lot of companies are sort of making these sort of announcements at the same time, you know, partially because the Biden administration and other folks have said we want to up the domestic supply of rare earth mines. A lot of companies that have held mining claims are now starting to explore. And, you know, you mentioned different spots in Montana, also Wyoming, you know, other parts of the West, a lot of places are announcing these sorts of, hey, we just found a huge site. So what happens next is, you know, now they have to start raising money. They need to start their permitting process, you know, hiring up lawyers and things like that and doing more experimental drilling, you know, and then after that is when they start, you know, proposing to federal governments and going to these communities and saying this is what the mine will actually look like. So we're still very early in the process. You know, a lot remains to be seen what the actual impacts will be. But, you know, in a decade from now, I could be back here and we could be talking about a bunch of open pit mines that are being dug actively throughout the West.
WRIGHT: Wow. Okay. Will Walkey with the Mountain West News Bureau talking about rare earth minerals and mining in the West. Thanks so much for for giving us an update.
WALKEY: Thank you for having me.
