The Texas General Land Office (GLO) has entered into two new hard mineral leases for rare earth minerals with El Paso Minerals Corp. covering more than 1,000 acres in Hudspeth County, Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, M.D., announced Sept. 22.
According to the GLO’s news release, the agreements build on the Round Top project and mark a major step toward establishing Texas’ first dedicated rare earth mining district, which the agency described as a hub to support the extraction and processing of rare earth elements and other critical minerals used in national defense, advanced manufacturing and energy technologies.
“Round Top Mountain has already put Texas on the map for domestic rare earth and critical mineral development, with USA Rare Earth serving as the founding partner in advancing this vision,” Buckingham said. “These new leases with El Paso Minerals Corp. build on that momentum and demonstrate what the responsible development of Texas state land can accomplish.”
The new leases generated more than half a million dollars in immediate revenue for the Permanent School Fund, the state’s public education endowment, with additional royalties expected as development progresses, the GLO said.
Cesar Gonzalez, CEO of El Paso Minerals, said decades of research by the University of Texas at El Paso and UT Austin’s Bureau of Economic Geology have documented heavy rare earth and critical mineral potential across the Sierra Blanca district. He said the company’s existing private leases, combined with the new state leases, give it the largest land position in the district.
“We are now preparing to drill our primary target and are excited to be working with Commissioner Buckingham and the Texas GLO to advance this opportunity in West Texas,” Gonzalez said.
Alex Moyes, senior vice president for mining and separation at USA Rare Earth, credited Buckingham’s support for responsible resource development with helping position Texas and the company as a leader in critical minerals.
Round Top Mountain sits on GLO-managed state land about 90 miles east of El Paso. In June, Buckingham praised the finalization of agreements unlocking up to $1.6 billion to accelerate USA Rare Earth’s development of the Round Top deposit and its domestic mine-to-magnet supply chain, according to the release.
Buckingham has made domestic critical mineral development a priority for the agency, and the GLO said a West Texas rare earth district represents an opportunity to secure American supply chains, reduce reliance on foreign sources, strengthen national security and create economic opportunities for Texans.