Ramaco Resources secures five-year permit for Brook rare earth mine in Wyoming

Ramaco Resources (NASDAQ: METC) announced Tuesday that the Brook mine has received a second five-year land use approval from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.

With the permit, the project is now authorized to continue coal mining and reclamation activities across approximately 4,549 permitted acres north of Sheridan, Wyoming, the miner said.

The Brook mine holds what is believed to be the nation’s largest unconventional deposit of rare earth elements and critical minerals sourced from coal and carbonaceous ore.

Rare earths are essential elements to realizing an electrified economy, and crucial to producing heavy magnets that power EVs. There is only one active mine for magnetic rare earths in the US — the Mountain Pass in California.

Meanwhile, China has come to control 91% of refining activity, 87% of oxide separation and 94% of magnet production.

On July 11, coal miners, industry stakeholders and government officials commemorated the opening of the Brook mine carbon ore project, the first new US rare earth mine in more than 70 years, and the first new coal mine in Wyoming in over 50 years.

The ability to domestically mine and refine rare earths and critical minerals contained in the carbonaceous ore from the Brook mine represents a “strategic milestone in the nation’s efforts to reduce foreign reliance on critical minerals essential to defense, technology and clean energy,” the company said.

Earlier this month, Ramaco released a preliminary economic assessment estimating that, based upon the current mine plan of producing 2 million tons of coal per annum, an adjusted EBITDA of $134 million by 2028 from the rare earth and critical mineral operation.

Earlier this year, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon backed a $6.1 million energy grant to support the construction of a pilot-scale processing facility at the Brook mine. Construction is planned to begin later this year.