Wyo: Rare Earth Minerals

The world wants what Wyoming has; the 17 once obscure scientific curiosities found at the bottom of the periodic table. With names like europium, terbium and dysprosium, these chemically complex rare-earth elements have become essential in everything from wind turbines to smart phones, from flat-screen TVs to compact fluorescent light bulbs. Maybe, just maybe, this is a first date that might lead to something. Certainly, Rare Element Resources thinks it will. With plans for $400 million in infrastructure in and near the towns of Sundance and Upton, the mining company specializing in rare earth metals believes it has a rock-star project to compete with China’s near monopoly on these useful substances. The deposit, nine miles northwest of Sundance on the fringes of the Black Hills, has rare earth in spades. It is especially blessed with the heaviest of the rare earths, the ones projected to be in highest demand during coming years for use in high-performance magnets and compact fluorescents, say company officials. One of the elements, dysprosium – which allows magnets to retain their effectiveness up to 250 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to 80 to 100 degrees for ordinary iron magnets – has fetched up to $1.2 million per ton in the last year. Analysts don’t expect that to last, but they do expect it to stay close to $300,000 to $400,000 a ton...more