In the rust-colored shadow of a mountain in Wyoming, the search is underway for some of the most important minerals on the planet.
The salt-and-pepper rocks here have an unusually high presence of several “rare earth” elements — namely Neodymium, Dysprosium, Praseodymium, and Terbium — which are essential in making the magnets that go into things like electric vehicle motors and wind turbines.
American Rare Earths, the company conducting the exploration and analyses, also has holdings in Arizona and Nevada that could substantially ease US dependence on foreign sources of these key metals.