Halleck Creek Project And National Race On REE Production

Wyoming is at the center of an epic national race to turn on production of rare earth metals, needed for just about everything related to modern-day life — even as China races to shut off the export of these strategic minerals.

That makes Friday’s announcement that Wyoming Rare (USA) Inc. has found a home for a pilot plant with Western Research Institute in Laramie for its Halleck Creek project all the more important.

Based on the company’s exploration, the Halleck Creek site near Wheatland has the potential to be one of the world’s richest deposits of rare earths. Having a pilot plant at a world-class research facility will do much to help move Wyoming Rare’s starting line forward, giving it just a bit of a head start in what has become an extremely high-stakes race not just for Wyoming, but the nation.

“The pilot plant is 100% necessary to really show the potential of (Halleck Creek),” Wyoming Rare (USA) President Joe Evers told Cowboy State Daily on Friday. “It will show potential investors that we can do what we said we could during the scoping study, as we work on the pre-feasibility part of this project.”

Western Research Institute is world-class, Evers added, and will be a great partner for the work that’s ahead.

“Because of our position on state-owned land, and the way that things work in Wyoming, just when you’re dealing with the Wyoming government and not the federal government, I would say that our project is uniquely situated to potentially meet those demands in a truncated timeline, compared to other projects that have to navigate some different things,” he said.

The Modern World Runs On Rare Earths

Speed is of particular urgency, and that urgency is something that has found rare bipartisan agreement in a time of ever-increasing partisanship.

Presidents of both major parties have prioritized rare earth production, including the outgoing Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration, who made it a priority during his first term in office, as did Obama before that.The thing is, America is addicted to all 17 rare earth elements for its modern lifestyle.

Tantalum, rhodium, niobium, osmium, neodymium, promethium — pick a rare earth. We can’t pronounce them, but we are carrying them around with us wherever we go.

Tantalum, for example, is a key component of smartphones, video games and laptops. Rhodium finds a spot in catalytic converters and other car parts. Niobium is an alloy commonly used in gas pipelines. Osmium produces very hard alloys for needles and fountain pen tips, and the list goes on.