The developer of what would be the first new coal mine in Wyoming in decades plans to process the fossil fuel to extract hard-to-get metals that are crucial for tech products and military hardware.Energy Secretary Chris Wright,

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright was in Ranchester, Wyoming, on Friday for the ribbon cutting to open the first U.S. rare earth mine in 70 years.

In the chaos of war, there’s nothing to stop Chinese firms from ravaging the landscape and extracting the minerals, which end up in China.

Construction delays have caused one of North America’s few rare-earth processors to push back its production goal, just as Western nations struggle to counter China’s control over metals vital to industry.

Nintendo’s Switch 2 videogame machine uses a rare-earth magnet to attach its hand-held controllers to the main console, according to a teardown.

Shares of rare-earth miner MP Materials have left Wall Street in the dust. One analyst is playing catch-up.

Importing cheap Chinese rare earths comes with big risks. In April, in response to President Trump’s tariffs, China temporarily suspended almost all exports of seven kinds of rare-earth metals, as well as some of the very powerful magnets made from them.