Rare earths industry gets boost

CASPER — Gov. Mark Gordon signed a bill into law last week that aims to simplify the approval process for rare earths mines in Wyoming. 
 
Substantial deposits of rare earth elements often occur alongside radioactive materials, such as uranium and thorium. The new law, which was sponsored by the Joint Minerals Committee and sailed unanimously through the Legislature, authorizes the governor’s office to ask the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to delegate authority over rare earth mines’ often-hazardous byproducts to the state.
 
“What the bill does is expands, amends, our agreement state status with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,” Rep. Donald Burkhart Jr., R-Rawlins, told the Senate Minerals Committee on Feb. 2. 
 
The agency gave Wyoming regulators jurisdiction over uranium and thorium mines in 2018. 
 
“If we generate uranium or thorium from some other operation, as a byproduct,” he said, “we’re not an agreement state, and a company would have to go to the NRC directly for a license to possess byproduct uranium and thorium.” 
 
The lawmakers behind the bill worked with the federal agency to ensure the language met its standards. They’re confident the change will be successful — and believe it’ll help to jump-start Wyoming’s rare earths industry by making the permitting process for commercial mines faster and cheaper. 
 
The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s ability to license uranium and thorium mines independently “has been a tremendous benefit to the industry,” Burkhart told the committee. 
 
Doing it all at the state level, he added, costs companies “about half the time and half the money” compared with going through the federal process. 
“So we are a lot more efficient being an agreement state.” 
 
The state agency is on board with expanding the program, according to Todd Parfitt, director of the Department of Environmental Quality. So is the governor’s office, said Jennifer Thomson, Gordon’s major project development manager, during the same committee meeting. 
 
“We see this as a great opportunity for the state to take on the permitting and regulatory actions of an industry that we want to see move forward in the state of Wyoming,” Thomson said. 
 
At least one of the rare earths projects in the works in Wyoming will have to secure permission to handle and dispose of radioactive byproducts, either from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or from the state. 
 
“We decided, as a state, we should be able to license those byproduct materials,” Burkhart said. 
 
“The benefits to the industry will be the same as they have to the mining industry,” he added. “Half the time, half the money.”
 
 
This story was published on Feb. 27, 2023.