mining

Rare earth elements are a set of 17 silvery white metals with names mostly unknown to the general public, like neodymium and gadolinium. But the mining industry is spending millions of dollars looking for deposits throughout the Mountain West.

When Yellowstone National Park was first founded 150 years ago, it was a landmark move. It was the world’s first national park signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant, and in the years since, it has represented America’s efforts to protect the outdoors.However, Adam Sowards, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Idaho, recently wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times detailing America's troubled history with public lands. Sowards spoke with Wyoming Public Radio’s Caitlin Tan.

Sweetwater County will see a new soda ash mining project in the next eight years, potentially creating hundreds of mining jobs.Soda ash is a material that is refined from the mineral trona. Although it is not a common household term, soda ash is one of the most consumed inorganic compounds in the world

Bison Blockchain is constructing a facility just west of Cheyenne that will be Black Hills Energy's first customer under a special tariff that aims to help companies with high energy demands, such as blockchain ones. Around 45 megawatts is expected for use when the company begins operations, which could go as high as 75 megawatts depending on the company's future growth.

The planned Thacker Pass lithium mine in remote northern Nevada has drawn protests and a lawsuit from local tribes. One of the tribes, the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, has increased its efforts to stop the project.

Abandoned uranium mines are found in all corners of the Southwest. With big money flowing in the coming decade from settlements with large corporations and the U.S. government for contamination, cleanup of hundreds of abandoned mines will finally begin after decades of neglect. And that means jobs for tribal citizens and businesses, providing an economic balm for areas that need work.

A historic gold mine near Cheyenne is potentially going to be reopened. This would be the first metal mine in Wyoming in nearly 40 years. Wyoming Public Radio's Ivy Engel has more.

Sundown towns once drove out people of color or prohibited them from living within city limits. This practice started in the late 19th century, but the impact continues today. In Colorado, Chinese immigrants flocked to the state to find gold. They were tolerated in some mining camps and run out of others.

U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) is looking to a bipartisan innovation bill, the Endless Frontiers Act, to expand research into critical and rare earth…

The likely new owners of four million acres of mineral rights and a million acres of land primarily in Wyoming is Orion Mine Finance, a subset of the…