Posted on 03/28/2024 7:39:56 AM PDT by Red Badger
Ramaco Resources in northeast Wyoming plans to update its rare earths deposit find Wednesday, pushing the estimate on tonnage underground to over 1.5 million tons, and the value to more than $37 billion.
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Ramaco's coal mine in northern Wyoming is revealing potential to be a huge rare earths deposit. The company has assets all over the country, like this mine in the Eastern U.S. (Courtesy Ramaco)
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Ramaco Resources Inc. in northeast Wyoming plans to update its rare earths deposit find in the Cowboy State on Wednesday, pushing the estimate on tonnage underground to more than 1.5 million tons, and the value to more than $37 billion because of the inclusion of Chinese minerals banned for shipment to America.
The deposit in the coal-rich Powder River Basin is already considered to be one of the world’s largest deposits of rare earth minerals.
Ramaco estimated in May 2023 that it had 800,000 tons of rare earths. Since then as testing has continued, that figure has been revised upward to 1.2 million tons.
But a new technical report prepared by a consultant for Lexington, Kentucky-based Ramaco reveals 1.5 million tons with more than 10% of the Brook Mine deposit estimated to contain strategic gallium and germanium critical minerals.
In terms of the report’s key findings — to be released Wednesday — both the reported Brook Mine’s rare earth tonnage volume and concentrations estimates have almost doubled since the original May 2023 report.
A key aspect contained in the updated report is the notation that China has banned for export those two high-value critical minerals to the United States, which were not included in the earlier analysis in 2023.
The increased prices in the two critical minerals prompted Ramaco to include them in the new analysis — which is likely to bring the value of the rare earths deposit to well over $37 billion.
Bought Mine For $2
Ramaco Chairman and CEO Randal Atkins declined to discuss the findings of the report in advance of a Wednesday conference call with investors.
“We don’t want to front-run the report,” Atkins told Cowboy State Daily.
Ramaco had previously tested a third of its long-dormant 15,800-acre coal mine located 7 miles north of Sheridan, which it bought sight unseen for $2 million in 2011.
The technical report, which was filed with the U.S. Securities and Regulatory Commission on March 21, notes that an additional 59 holes were drilled since the last report on the rare earth minerals find in May — boosting the total holes to 123.
Rare earth minerals are used in magnet materials required for everything from powering electric vehicles and wind turbines to military applications to ensure short takeoffs and landings of jets from an aircraft carrier’s deck, and aircraft powered by magnet motors.
Ramaco, which is pursuing potential pilot production and commercialization at its Brook Mine deposit, is considering collaboration with a university, and governmental and other research institutions to explore “unconventional processing techniques,” according to a copy of the Weir report.
The Brook Mine is not the only game in the rare earth minerals world in Wyoming.
There’s also Rare Element Resources Ltd. looking to complete a rare earth minerals demonstration factory in Upton, and American Rare Earths Inc. that aims to raise $456 million to begin mine development and production in Wheatland.
“There are still many issues to be addressed for one to conclude that prospects are reasonable for economically feasible extraction of the minerals at this time,” according to the Weir report. “Work is currently ongoing to address these issues.”
Pat Maio can be reached at pat@cowboystatedaily.com.
And they Just Want to Celebrate
They should have kept that to themselves. Expect an injunction and a lawsuit to stop them any day now.
How soon before leftists in the government shut it all down?
ChiComjoe and his traitorous kakistocracy will stop Ramaco from processing those rare earth elements and keep the U.S. dependent on the ChiComs.
So will Traitor Joe ban them digging it up so he can continue to repay his Chinese masters?
Don’t worry the epa will come up with something that makes it financially impossible to mine this so we will still be beholden to China.
Biden will confiscate it then sell cheap to China.
“800,000 tons of rare earths”
That should cover a year or two of the Green Wet Dream.
Unfortunately, their mine site is the location of the worlds last outpost of the rare brown speckled flea. This flea is so critical to the ecosystem here and it is so complicated I can’t go into detail here but trust us, the world cannot let the brown speckled flea go extinct or all of mankind is doomed. You’ll just have to trust us at EnvironaughtseesRUs. We’ve done the research. Science!!
And they Just Want to CelebrateUntil Big Brother shows up.
The USA still mines some rare-earth minerals - BUT we ship them to China for refining and further processing.
Its an energy-intensive and relatively dirty business - at least in the eyes of woke bureaucrats and suburban Karens
Sorry to bear bad news - but under our present society and regime, these “green energy minerals” needed for our leftist energy transition schemes - will continue to come from china well into the future
I’m sure the XiDen treasonous will soon step up to sell it to the Chinese or zone it off as a national monument soon to prevent it from being exploited by Americans.
I expect Fedgov to seal it for a 1000 years or China buys it.
At that price, we could easily corner the whole periodic table for just a few trillion.
Start off buying up the noble gases and then build hotels on Osmium and Iridium.
as long as ev mandates are ev mandates, that is.
Get ready!
😎👍.........................I had that on 45!..............
Exactly what dictator Walz did in MN. PolyMet cleared all environmental permitting, so they changed the rules, and made them reapply. Thousands of jobs shot down by the crooked democrats, again.
Shut it down and turn it into a National Park, like B. Clinton did. Chinese will love you.
China will be pulling every dirty trick in their arsenal to stop this mine.
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