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Secretary Wright Joins Fox Business at the Ramaco Brook Mine Rare Earth Opening in Wyoming

July 11, 2025 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:06:14

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Fox Business reported from the Ramaco Brook Mine in Wyoming on July 11, 2025, for the opening of the first rare earth mine in the United States in more than 70 years, according to the Department of Energy video.

The program said the mine will produce six of the 17 rare earth elements used in warplanes, semiconductors, powerful magnets and cell phones, as it described them, breaking dependence on China, which it said provides 70% of the U.S. supply and mines 70% of the world’s rare earths, and which had cut off seven elements since April in retaliation for President Trump’s tariffs, as stated on the program. Only a third of the land had been studied, as the program stated it.

An event speaker put U.S. use at about 10,000 tons of rare earths a year against 1.7 million tons at the mine — north of 150 years of supply at this mine alone — calling it America’s answer to China, as stated at the event, and named terbium and scandium among the most important elements there.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright told the program this is America answering the call: the country became too dependent on critical minerals from overseas, above all China, while making it hard to permit mines and industry at home, and under President Trump’s leadership that is being brought back — in Wyoming, with coal, the biggest source of electricity on the planet, and rare earth elements critical to national and economic security together, as he described it. He explained rare earths let magnets be more powerful, smaller, lighter and heat-resistant, and are used in fighter aircraft, phones and cars, as he stated their uses.

Why it matters

The mine opening is presented as the permitting agenda made physical: a domestic rare earth supply, counted in centuries, opened as China restricted exports.

Scoreboard watch

The figures as stated at the July 11, 2025 event: about 10,000 tons of U.S. rare earth use a year against 1.7 million tons at the Brook Mine, described as more than 150 years of supply. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no verdict is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins Fox Business at Ramaco Brook Mine - July 11, 2025”, 2025-07-11 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-07-11). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.