The mine is a coal mine that is being reopened. A byproduct of the coal mining with be the REEs. The best bit: there is absolutely no problem sourcing REE ore: the problem is in the benefaction and refining: there is ~ none in the US so if the sell the ore on guess where to: CHINA!
www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/natural-reso...
Looks like they're *planning* to build refining capabilities on site, but seems like they're a long, long way from actually doing it. Heck, they seem a long way from being able to recover the REE, and none of their technical reports have enough detail to convince me that it'll go. It's a coal mine.
In the US, we've never had the stomach for the waste that refining these minerals causes. We do not have the capacity to do anything with any of this. Who does? China, but they are mega pissed over the tariff situation. They are not going to help. So we'll have this crap and be fucked.
Quite.