When I was a tween I was fascinated by dendrochronology. Basically, I loved to count the tree rings on a log to determine the age of the tree and what the tree survived during its lifetime.  Unlike today’s helicopter parents, ours would push us out the door after breakfast and tell us to come home by dinner. My little brother and I were constantly digging around the neighborhood in the hopes of finding pirate treasure (albeit not living near an ocean). I also loved geology and archeology and enjoyed rock hunting.

Nowadays, all the world wide buzz is on rare earth minerals (REE’s), but I only recently learned what some were: cesium, halloysite, gallium, germanium, lanthanum, rubidium and yttrium are examples of the stuff and countries go to war over who has the resources of these minerals.  Apparently, you need these to create computer chips, magnets in electric vehicles, phosphors for your computer, TV and phone screens, fluorescent lights, MRI imaging, blue light in LCDs and energy-efficient light bulbs. If I wanted to go rock hunting I might find several of these inorganic materials right here in Utah, specifically about 20 miles south of the Utah County’s Silicon Slopes area.

Given that Trump has been threatening China on and off for with massive kinds of tariffs, China has threatened to cut off access to these natural occurring deposits of which they claim to have the worlds largest supplies within their borders. Local Utahns are wondering if they’ve hit proverbial gold if they can find REE’s in their back yards. For example, cesium sells for $2,600-3,000 per ounce, rubidium for $1,000 to $3,000 per ounce, germanium $150-200 an ounce, and yttrium for $60-70 an ounce.  Gold is now up to $4,400-$4,500 per ounce and silver has been rising and is now overing around $80 per ounce. Economy watchers have noticed as of late that China has been selling off its U.S. investments in things like U.S. Treasury Bills and investing in the silver and gold markets, trading dollars for metals. Both China and Japan have been the major investors in TBills along with Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffett’s company that began buying up the BH stock in the 1960’s).  That company’s stock is valued currently at around $750,000 per share, the highest price stock right now in the NYSE.

Washington County is famous for germanium production around the Apex Mine in the Beaver Dam Mountains but Utah County is now drawing investors and national attention in and around the Silicon Ridge mine at the southern end of Utah lake. The clay-like dirt around there holds 16 REE’s which could have an impact on the ever growing need for them in computing and AI technology. I’m a little too old to go prospecting these days but you can bet folks are wondering what money might be in their backyard dirt.