Coal mining giant Peabody Energy, with massive operations in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, is among five entities that will share a total of $75 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to advance production of rare-earth elements and critical minerals.

As of press time, it wasn’t clear exactly how much Peabody might receive from the department’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation, but it will be added to the $6.25 million in taxpayer money granted to the company earlier this year via Wyoming’s Energy Matching Funds program for the same project.

Peabody plans to build a pilot processing facility at its Rawhide mine just north of Gillette to extract rare earth and critical minerals from coal, according to a Peabody document submitted to the state. It would produce “market-ready mixed rare-earth concentrate,” which can be further refined to produce oxides and metals used in modern technology. Once complete, the facility would support 55 new jobs, Peabody says.

“Coupled with the Wyoming Energy Authority grant awarded earlier this year, this [DOE grant] selection reflects the meaningful progress Peabody has made in advancing promising unconventional rare earth and critical mineral opportunities,” Peabody President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Grech said in a prepared statement this week.

The DOE’s support of Peabody’s effort in Wyoming demonstrates the value of Wyoming coal beyond burning it to generate electricity, Wyoming Mining Association Executive Director Travis Deti said.

“Whether it be energy or the domestic supply chain for needed critical minerals and rare earths, Wyoming coal will be needed for the foreseeable future,” Deti told WyoFile. “Of course this all translates into jobs and revenue.”

St. Louis-based Peabody Energy, with a market value of $2.8 billion, is the largest coal producer in Wyoming and the nation. It owns and operates the Rawhide, North Antelope Rochelle and Caballo coal mines in northeastern Wyoming. Rawhide shipped 7.8 million tons of coal in 2025, according to federal data, while Caballo produced nearly 11.7 million tons and North Antelope scooped nearly 65 million tons. 

Peabody reorganized after filing for bankruptcy and laying off 235 Wyoming miners in 2016. Today, the company employs about 1,480 coal miners in Wyoming.

Push for rare earth, critical minerals

Rare-earth elements and critical minerals occur all over the world, typically in minute quantities. The metals are increasingly in demand as building blocks for everything from magnets to batteries in devices like cell phones and MRI machines. They’re also frequently used in military equipment.

The U.S. has lagged behind China in producing and refining the metals, giving China an economic advantage in the rocky relationship between the two nations. The U.S., and the Trump administration in particular, has pushed a rare-earth and critical minerals supply chain buildout toward the top of its mining and manufacturing priorities.

Last year, President Donald Trump issued the Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production executive order while invoking the Defense Production Act to fast-track permitting and help finance mining and processing efforts.

With increasing government and private-sector interest, Rare Element Resources recently built a rare-earth demonstration processing plant near Upton. Others are pursuing new mining operations in the Laramie Range and southern Bighorn Mountains. Those are all traditional, hardrock resources. As for Wyoming coal, researchers have known for years that it contains rare-earth and critical minerals, but it’s only a relatively new focus.

Although Ramaco Resources, for years, has said it is reactivating its Brook coal mine near Sheridan to extract critical minerals, Peabody Energy’s entrance into the market brings another level of corporate prowess to the prospect of putting Wyoming on the world map. And the Trump administration’s focus on coal for the metals dovetails with other priorities.

“Today’s announcement advances the Trump administration’s efforts to strengthen the U.S. coal sector,” the Department of Energy said. It “reflects a broader commitment to unlock the value of coal and coal-based feedstocks as domestic sources of critical minerals and materials.”

Gov. Mark Gordon agrees.

“I was happy to support a $6.25 million grant from the Wyoming Energy Authority’s Energy Matching Fund earlier this year to build a pilot processing facility at the Rawhide mine near Gillette,” he told WyoFile this week. “If we are going to get back in the game of supplying our nation’s need for rare-earth elements and critical minerals, we need to look at all sources, including those in and around coal seams. The federal contribution is a great addition to this effort.”

Meantime, Wyoming is investing significant taxpayer money beyond the $6.25 million already granted to Peabody.

Visionary Metals Corp recently received a $250,000 Energy Matching Funds grant for a nickel-and-copper project in the Granite Mountains. Also this year, the Legislature created the Wyoming Rare Earths Fund with $16 million “for commercial deployment projects focused on the processing and separation of rare-earth resources located in Wyoming.”

Monique Merrill

(CN) — A federal judge in Montana must determine whether or not to split up two cases challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s reduction of protections to the greater sage grouse across millions of acres in the West and transfer the claims to Wyoming.

Seven conservation groups — the Center for Biological Diversity, Gallatin Wildlife Association, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, Rocky Mountain Wild, the Sierra Club, the Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians — sued the agency in March, challenging its approval of resource management plan amendments for greater sage grouse across nine Western states spanning from California to North Dakota.

Later that month, another three conservation groups — The Montana Wildlife Federation, the Wilderness Society and Defenders of Wildlife — also sued the agency, challenging specifically the Wyoming and Montana plan amendments.

In both cases, the plaintiffs accuse the Bureau of Land Management of weakening prior protections for sage grouse habitat by removing key restrictions and expanding oil and gas leasing. The bird is considered threatened, with populations in sharp decline due primarily to habitat loss.

Both cases were filed in Montana federal court and have not been consolidated, and on Monday, the state of Wyoming argued they should be dismissed or at least severed and have the case transferred to Wyoming.

“Wyoming is a sage grouse stronghold,” Ethan Paddison of the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office argued. “The group’s challenge to the 2025 Wyoming [Resource Management Plan Amendment] strikes at the heart of this longstanding cooperative conservation framework between the state of Wyoming and the federal government.”

According to Wyoming, its resource management plan is different than the other states because it took account of different underlying facts and local plans in its development.

But U.S. District Judge Brian Morris, a Barack Obama appointee, noted his concern at severing the cases in the event that the courts return conflicting decisions. Wyoming appeals go to the Tenth Circuit and Montana appeals go to the Ninth Circuit.

Wyoming argued there was more tying the cases to Wyoming than any other venue.

“The state has spent close to three decades and upwards of $100 million developing and implementing the sage grouse core area strategy,” Paddison said.

The federal government agreed and asked the court to move all claims raised by the seven conservation group plaintiffs to the District of Wyoming.

“What we’re asking here is to do something different, to keep the case together, but to put it in a place, at least one of these places, where there’s a higher concentration of sage grouse habitat,” Justice Department attorney Luther Hajek said.

Wyoming has 24% of Bureau of Land Management-managed surface lands designated as sage grouse habitats, roughly 17 million acres.

Michael Freeman, Earthjustice attorney representing the trio of conservation groups, implored the court to consider the case as a continuation of a recently decided sage grouse case in which Morris tossed oil leases on sage grouse habitat.

“Rather than conserving sage grouse by complying with prioritization, BLM has responded to this court’s decisions by attempting to just eliminate prioritization from its plans altogether,” Freeman said. “And just as this court found in the leasing litigation that national decisions need to be properly adjudicated together in a single court, and this court represents a proper venue for doing so.”

Transferring the case to Wyoming would reward a “rush to courthouse,” Freeman argued. Plus, it would be inefficient to have two courts deciding the same issues based on essentially the same administrative record, he said.

Morris questioned why there were even two lawsuits to begin with.

Freeman clarified that the trio of conservation groups are focused specifically on oil and gas prioritization issues, though admitted there were overlapping issues.

Andrew Missel, attorney with Advocates For The West representing the larger coalition of conservation groups, agreed with Freeman.

“I think transferring part or all of this case to Wyoming would not be in the interest of justice because it would effectively reward what I think is a pretty naked display of gamesmanship,” Missel said.

Morris again questioned why both sets of conservation groups filed separate suits.

“And you just happened to file both in the District of Montana,” Morris said.

Wyoming and the Western Energy Alliance filed suit against the Department of Interior in the District of Wyoming, seeking a declaration from the court that the state’s amended plan complies with the law. Missel characterized the suit as a sham.

Wyoming argued the lawsuit is further reason why Morris should move the claims to Wyoming, so the Montana court doesn’t run the risk of issuing a conflicting judgment with the Wyoming court.

Morris said he would return an order in the next couple of weeks.