The U.S. Forest Service in July began a 30-day public comment period on its plan to review a rare-earth element mining project in northeast Wyoming — the only opportunity for the public to weigh in on the federal process that is being fast-tracked by the Trump administration. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Associated Press.

Colorado-based Rare Earth Resources plans to construct an open-pit mine at Bull Hill in the Black Hills National Forest 12 miles northwest of Sundance and about 22 miles from Devils Tower. Raw materials from the mine will be trucked to its “demonstration” processing plant near Upton.

People with concerns about the mine’s implications for health, wildlife, exemptions to the Black Hills Forest management plan, air and water quality have until Friday to submit comments.

Thirty days is precious little time to absorb a complex mining proposal and environmental review documents, Sundance resident Justin Johnson told WyoFile. He’s lived in the area for more than a decade, and the project’s fast-track nature came as a surprise.

“It was kind of hush-hush, in my opinion, as far as not much word about it around Sundance,” Johnson said. “All of a sudden, in July when it came to our attention, it’s like, ‘Holy cow. We got little time before the federal deadline to get our comments and concerns to the Forest Service.’”

Crook County Commissioner John Davis acknowledged that locals are caught off guard with the expedited process.

“We’re in favor of the project, and we hope it goes forward,” Davis told WyoFile. “We’ve got a lot of questions and a few concerns ourselves that we’re hoping get squared away, too.”

The commission is hosting a special meeting at 4 p.m. at the courthouse in Sundance to pose questions to staff from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality and the Wyoming State Geological Survey.

Rare Element Resources’ Bear Lodge Rare Earth Project is among more than 50 projects in queue for fast-track federal permitting under FAST-41 coverage — one tool the Trump administration is using to address what it describes as a national security priority to increase domestic production and curb U.S. reliance on China for rare-earth elements, or “critical minerals.” 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 such as radars and jet engines.

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.

Rare Element Resources touts “one of the highest-grade deposits for the critical magnet (rare earth elements) neodymium and praseodymium, as well as samarium and terbium,” according to the company’s website. “These elements are expected to see the largest demand growth and price support over the next 10 years due to their importance in permanent magnets used in defense systems, transportation, advanced energy and other high-tech applications.”

Regardless of the demand for rare-earth elements, there’s no excuse to rush a mining project that involves public natural resources, said Rachael Hamby, policy director for the Colorado-based conservation and advocacy organization Center for Western Priorities. Especially for hard-rock mining in a national forest.

“They (federal officials) know that their actions on national public lands, and related to our natural resources, are deeply unpopular with the public,” Hamby told WyoFile. “That’s why we see them trying anything they can to avoid and minimize taking public comment, because they know it’s not going to go their way.”

The company, meanwhile, says there will be additional opportunities for public participation — via other federal and state entities — later in the process.

Rare Element Resources is headquartered in Firestone, Colo. General Atomics, a U.S. defense contractor, is a majority shareholder in the company, and its affiliates play a key role in the refining technologies that will be used to process critical minerals from the Bear Lodge mine.

The company has invested about $180 million in