Wyoming companies hoping to change U.S. reliance on China for rare earth elements

CASPER — Beneath Wyoming’s surface lies a bounty of resources most of us haven’t thought about since high school chemistry.

None of the increasingly sought-after rare earth elements — neodymium, dysprosium, praseodymium, another dozen lanthanides and a couple of others — are household names. On the periodic table, they’re housed mostly in the block of outliers relegated to the place where Alaska and Hawaii sit on U.S. maps.

But many of those elements are household staples. They’re what let smartphones glow and ring and buzz. They make fridges cold, lightbulbs bright and TVs vibrant. And their...