It’s common knowledge that the land of Texas is rich in many different ways, from oil to timber to gems and minerals.

Still, geologists were surprised to find a cache of rare earth minerals that are necessary for the production and deployment of many modern devices on an unassuming West Texas ranch.

A General Land Office (GLO) representative gave a statement on the find to The Big Bend Sentinel.

“A survey was completed that shows the presence of rare earth minerals. Given the rugged terrain and remote location, any exploration or extraction would require significant planning; however, the GLO is open to exploring these options in the future.”

They have not broken down the find any further as far as specific minerals or locations.

Currently, the land is leased for ranching, grazing, and hunting, and local officials were not aware of the discovery. Brewster County Judge Greg Henington told The Big Bend Sentinel that actually extracting them would be a daunting process.

“I don’t get the sense that rare earth is one of their plans. If it was, it’s probably years away, just because of the difficulty of getting in there and getting rare earth minerals out, and what do you do with them? Who can process them?”

The same caches have been located in other places in West Texas, namely in neighboring Hudspeth County, and they are working with USA Rare Earth to mine the minerals. The project is dealing with setbacks related to environmental concerns brought up by residents.

Environmental activist Bill Addington says this is for good reason.

“This is a highly toxic project that uses lots of water and does lots of surface destruction because they’d be doing open pit mining using dangerous chemicals. My community is real opposed to that.”

These minerals are essential for not only life as we know it, but for continued projects like space exploration and national defense to continue in the future. A mineral-rich zone runs from Mexico to Colorado, so this is likely an issue that will come to a head in the area sooner rather than later.

For now, all remains semi-peaceful in Big Bend.

If you think that’s impressive, check out this story about a “goldmine” of lithium that was found in the U.S. that could completely change the EV battery game.