Amid the decline of coal, Wyoming has found reason for fresh optimism in a different kind of underground wealth: rare earth elements, the critical minerals essential to everything from electric motors and wind turbines to smartphones and defense technology.

These elements are not actually rare in the earth's crust, but deposits concentrated enough to mine profitably are uncommon, and the United States has long depended on foreign sources, chiefly China. That dependence has become a strategic concern, spurring interest in developing domestic supplies. Wyoming's geology, it turns out, holds promising deposits.

Exploration has identified sites across the state where rare earths occur in quantities that could support mining, and companies have advanced projects aimed at tapping them. Some of the most intriguing prospects lie in the very regions where coal has declined, raising the tantalizing possibility of new mining jobs in communities losing old ones.

The path from discovery to production is long and uncertain, requiring not only mining but the complex processing that turns raw ore into usable material, a step the United States has largely ceded to others. Yet the strategic urgency is real, and Wyoming is eager to compete. If the deposits prove out, rare earths could open a new and unexpected chapter in the state's long mining story.