A remarkable 2 billion tons of rare Earth minerals have reportedly been unearthed at a mining site in the United States. This discovery can potentially disrupt China’s control over the industry, leading to a significant shift in the global rare Earth minerals market, with the US coming out on top.

The mining company, American Rare Earths Inc., holds a significant stake in over 360 mining claims across a vast swath of land amounting to over 6,300 acres in the Halleck Creek Project, alongside four Wyoming mineral leases on nearly 2,00 acres.

In a technical report released earlier this month, American Rare Earths–the US division of a Sydney, Australia-registered exploration company–disclosed that it had found 64% more rare earth minerals than it had originally speculated to discover in a March 2023 land assessment.

According to a spokesperson from American Rare Earths, the minerals buried beneath the ground in Wyoming far exceed those of the US’s largest contributor, China, which holds around 44 million metric tons of rare minerals.

The type of minerals in question are integral to economies around the world as they are used in the production of electric and hybrid vehicles, smartphones, and military technologies, amongst a plethora of other things.

While rare earths are fundamental to our daily technologies, they are also critical in all military technologies, making them central to national security in the US. However, these minerals were traditionally “dirty” to mine, meaning they left behind significant waste and damage to the land.

But times have changed as rare-earth exports have become a hot commodity that the world’s largest producer pulled the plug on in 2023. The reliance means vulnerability for the US, putting pressure on competitors to find a new source on its home turf.

Up to 95% of the rare minerals used in manufacturing around the world are sourced from China, with the United States importing nearly 75% of its supply from the Asian country.

If the US can successfully mine the rare minerals, it may usher in a new era of competition in the market. It may even give them a significant edge over nations such as China and Russia.

Following the discovery of the minerals at Halleck Creek, experts have suggested that the United States could become the world’s number one supplier of such minerals.

Of course, smart resource regulation is necessary. However, researchers and corporations behind these mining efforts know more today than we ever have about how to protect the environment while powering a diverse economy through natural resources.

Currently, the worldwide demand for rare-earth minerals stands at about 60,000 tons annually. American Rare Earths could move the mining operations to 320 acres of permitted land. However, a bigger mine does not mean that the world is ready for the resources that come from it.

Despite the Biden administration’s rhetoric against drilling as they fight for a green future, the US remains the world’s largest oil producer. According to the WSJ, 44.4 billion barrels of crude oil reserves are collected a year, and we export more petroleum than import.

However, the US refuses to press on its natural advantages, which could provide a diverse, thriving economy in the country, as it continues to manage its complicated relationship with China.

The drilling carried out at the site in Wyoming has uncovered oxides of praseodymium, samarium, terbium dysprosium, and neodymium. The latter is used in the production of hard disc drives and smartphones.

Once the mining work begins at the site, it will undoubtedly open up the US to a new generation of manufacturing, one that can use rare minerals sourced nationally.

To mine the rare minerals, American Rare Earths will likely opt for the traditional extraction process, which involves digging a large open pit on the surface and working downwards.

The hunt for rare minerals is strikingly similar to the Gold Rush of the 19th century, and American Rare Earths isn’t the only company in the race.

According to Ramaco Resources CEO Randall Atkins, who shared a statement with Cowboy State Daily: “We only tested it for 100, 200 feet, which is about the maximum you’d ever want to do a conventional coal mine.”

Over the last few months, the company has been releasing cost estimates and other economic projections on the development at the Halleck site in the Overton Mountain area. Included in these projections are the value of the minerals that could be mined over the next 30 years.

Mining.com has ranked the Halleck Creek rare-earths find as the fifth largest discovery of minerals in the world before Swartz’s company discovered the plethora of resources available.

It should be noted that Wyoming is big enough for multiple players in the rare-earth minerals game. In early 2023, Ramaco Resources announced that it found a deposit of rare earths on 16,000 acres of coal mines near Sheridan, Wyoming.

However, Swartz said that Ramaco Resources’ findings might be worth a lot more than they estimated. “Our resources are an order of magnitude larger than the Ramaco Resources number,” he said.

Rare Element Rouses Ltd., a Canadian exploration company, is setting up a mine on another large rare-earth deposit in Wyoming, hoping to use a new mining process that promises to speed up rare-earth processing.