Wyoming is home to rocks that formed in a vast array of geologic settings across nearly 4 billion years of Earth’s history. With this wide array of rock types comes a variety of mineral systems and deposit types, which creates potential for mineral deposits that can host critical minerals.

There are a number of minerals on the 2022 critical mineral list that are represented in Wyoming’s geology, with occurrences ranging from average concentrations for that specific rock-type (i.e., not enriched), to sub-economic and economic concentrations that may eventually be mineable. 

There are four critical mineral and element groups that have moderate to high potential for economic development in the state, including REEs, PGEs, vanadium, and titanium. For more information on these, see our page on Critical Minerals with Potential in Wyoming. 

Because critical minerals are typically present as only minor to trace components in many deposit types, many of the other critical minerals that can be found in Wyoming occur in non-economic to sub-economic concentrations. Some critical minerals do occur in high concentrations, but not in a large enough volume for them to be considered economical to extract. However, there has been limited historical exploration for some of these elements and materials, so there is still potential for new resources to be discovered and for known occurrences to be re-evaluated. Further, whether a mineral is economic to extract depends on many factors beyond just the geology of the deposit, and conditions that currently render a deposit “uneconomic” could change in the future. 

Recently, there has been increased interest in materials like lithium, nickel, and graphite in Wyoming, with new exploration occurring around the state. Read about these and other critical minerals by clicking on the links in the menu and dropdown bar at the top.