- Ramaco Resources, owner of the largest rare earth mine in America, was sued by investors.
- An activist investing firm alleges the Brooks Mine in Wyoming is a "hoax."
- Ramaco said in a statement that it has "meritorious defenses to all claims."
Last July, Ramaco Resources, a coal mining company in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, opened the first rare earth mineral mine in the U.S. in more than 70 years. It was also the first new coal mine to open in the state in decades, which has been a difficult proposition for many states in the West, despite the Trump administration’s recent push to open up more public lands for coal mining.
The Brooks Mine near Sheridan is able to produce minerals that can be refined in only a few places. China has the market all but cornered and, as such, a domestic source for scandium, gallium and germanium — which are necessary for renewable energy sources, batteries, defense systems as well as fiber optics, infrared optics, solar cells and electronics — was a reason to celebrate.
Wyoming’s governor, the state’s sole congresswoman as well as one of its two U.S. senators attended the ceremony as did Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
“We want to see the coal production grow in this country. This particular mine — and I’m sure there will be more — also is going to bring rare earth element production,” Wright said in a video on his X account that month. “Let’s celebrate American hydrocarbon production and the renaissance we’re entering.”
The opening of the mine was national news, and Deseret News interviewed Ramaco’s CEO about the mine’s potential at the time.
“This is a very exciting thing for Wyoming. It’s an exciting thing for the West. It’s an exciting thing for our country,” Randy Atkins said last July. “A rising tide carries all boats, and this is definitely a rising tide for our country.”
Six months later, an activist short-seller and research firm called Wolfpack Research published findings that allege Ramaco’s valuation and the Brooks Mine itself to be a “hoax.”
A few months after that, in January of this year, a group of Ramaco’s investors brought a class-action lawsuit in federal court in New York against the mining company, alleging that its “wrongful acts and omissions” led to a “precipitous decline in the market value of the company’s securities.”
Ramaco Resources did not respond to Deseret News’ requests for comment, but a spokesperson told Dustin Bleizeffer of WyoFile — who broke the news of the lawsuit earlier this month — via email that, “We believe we have meritorious defenses to all claims in this matter and provide no additional comment.”
What is included in the lawsuit?
Investor Lynn Henning filed the lawsuit “individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated” who bought securities in Ramaco between July 31 and October 23 of 2025.
The suit names Ramaco Resources, Atkins and the chief financial officer Jeremy Sussman as defendants.
It references the release of Wolfpack Research’s report, which led to a 9.6% drop in the price of the company’s stock. Following that, the lawsuit claims, the company made “materially false and/or misleading statements,” that it did not do any significant mining at the site of the groundbreaking and, due to that lack of progress, whatever positive comments Ramaco made about progress “lacked a reasonable basis.”
“As a result of defendants’ wrongful acts and omissions, and the precipitous decline in the market value of the company’s securities, plaintiff and other class members have suffered significant losses and damages,” according to the lawsuit.
Where did this initial research come from?
Wolfpack Research is an investing company that sells the stock of companies “short,” which means it is betting against the success of the company for its own gain.
After researching a company that it doubts, a short-seller publishes its findings, creating doubt and uncertainty about a stock. Often those reports — if other investors trust what is presented — lead to valuation drops that can be significant. Depending on how the short-seller structured its investments, they’re then positioned to make a profit off that publicly traded company’s losses.
Some have become quite well known, like Hindenburg Research, whose published reports against the Adani Group in 2023, led to at least a $100 billion loss of value in just a matter of days, as well as the subsequent large international scandal.
With Ramaco, Wolfpack Research claimed that the Brooks Mine is a “Potemkin Mine,” suggesting that it’s a facade rather than an actual mining location.
“We have reinitiated our short in $METC because we think its rare earth project, the Brook Mine, is a hoax. Our drone footage shows the mine’s ‘grand opening’ was a sham, with virtually no activity since the staged event,“ it wrote on the X post announcing its research.
“We spoke with 15 experts in rare earths mining and not one thought it was economically viable. Experts called METC’s promotion of the Brook Mine a “pump and dump, “modern day fraud”, “(expletive) show”, and “science project.” We think its economic assessment is (expletive), based on manipulated market data."
What is the Brooks Mine?
Prior to its opening, the Brooks Mine was heavily vetted and is a recipient of both federal and state grants. That was the result of nearly a decade of research and preparation.
Atkins, whose company is based out of Kentucky, bought the coal mine from Brink’s, the armored car company, in 2011. He paid around $2 million for something the Wall Street Journal reported could be worth $37 billion.
At that time, Ramaco was aware that utility companies were using less coal for energy production, so Atkins decided to try doing more than just pure coal mining with his new property. They tested the resources for other potential applications.
During that review, the company found the presence of rare earth minerals above and below the seams of the Wyoming coal deposits. It was, Atkins said, a massive amount of them.
At that point, Ramaco had an independent assessment done by Fluor Corporation that it published a few weeks prior to the grand opening last July. Not only did the mine have rare earth minerals, the report found, but it also confirmed that the project could be both technically and commercially feasible.
“It’s a complete domestic supply line. We can mine it here,” Atkins said last July. “We can process it here. We can certainly sell it to domestic customers.”
With such materials at the heart of geopolitical conflicts and representing the future of manufacturing, Atkins said Ramaco could be a great boon for America.
“I think it’s certainly going to be a great game changer for Ramaco,” he said. “But honestly, it’s a great game changer for the country.”
Year to date, the stock is down around 20%. But since the release of Wolfpack Research’s report on January 23, the stock price dropped from a high of $27.72 per share to $15.09 this week, a 45% reduction.