By Zak Sonntag
Casper Star-Tribune
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

CASPER —  American Rare Earths, a mineral exploration company whose Halleck Creek mine in Albany County was named one of the top ten critical mineral deposits on earth, has a knack for catching breaks. 

Not only did one after another of its exploration campaigns return higher-than-expected concentrations of coveted magnet minerals, but it also got a big leg up last month when President Biden slapped tariffs on China, the world’s leading mineral producer, which effectively guarantees domestic demand for American Rare Earths’ future product. 

Now, the company has yet another wind at its back. 

The Wyoming Energy Authority this week awarded $7.1 million to American Rare Earths to accelerate its progression from exploration to development. 

The company will deploy the grant over a period of years to complete its bulk sampling stages, conduct environmental review studies for state permitting and stand up a pilot processing plant at its Halleck Creek site. 

The award is a windfall. 

In 2020, the Wyoming Legislature appropriated $12 million to support specific forms of energy research. The budget legislation stated that after grant expenditures, any remaining funds be allocated to the Energy Authority to reward. 

Funds did remain, and now they’ve been allocated to American Rare Earths. 

“We are thrilled to receive this support from the Wyoming Energy Authority, which not only represents technical validation of the project by industry experts…but a shared commitment to permit and develop a commercial rare earth mine and processing facility in Wyoming,” said American Rare Earths CEO Donald Swartz. 

The target deposits are the magnet-metals neodymium and praseodymium, essential for the production of automobiles, computer technology and national defense systems. 

What makes the Halleck Creek site unique is that unlike most critical mineral deposits, which are coupled with high amounts of radioactive elements and also trapped in “hard rock,” the Halleck creek deposits are held in soft, almost clay-like formations and have only minor radioactivity. 

This means that processing the deposits will likely cost much less than conventional magnet mineral operations, and a growing list of backers are betting it will. 

“The American Rare Earths Mine, supported through the Wyoming Energy Authority and the State of Wyoming, will give us greater insight into potentially one of the largest deposits of rare earth materials in the United States. And, like previous grant recipients, we look forward to what this project will bring our state and nation,” said American Rare Earths Executive Director Rob Creager.