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United States
Peabody (Wyoming Rare Earths)
A NYSE-listed U.S. coal producer evaluating rare earths and other critical minerals in its Powder River Basin coal and overburden, with a planned pilot plant at the Rawhide mine near Gillette, Wyoming, to make a mixed rare earth concentrate; it has a state grant and a July 2026 DOE selection for award negotiations.
Points to check
Facts from the sources on this page that a reader should weigh before relying on the company's own figures.
- DOE states that selection for award negotiations does not commit it to an award, and Peabody's share of the $75 million has not been published.
- No rare earth resource statement, pilot throughput, construction date or offtake has been published.
- The 428-1,669 ppm figures are critical mineral oxide concentrations on a dry-ash basis from sampling, not a resource grade for run-of-mine coal.
- In September 2026 the partner agreement Peabody said it was nearing was based on germanium, which is not a rare earth.
- Peabody described its rare earth and critical minerals initiative as in early stages in February 2026.
At a glance
- Founded
- 1883 — Founded in Chicago in 1883 as Peabody, Daniels & Company and incorporated as Peabody Coal Company in 1890. It filed for Chapter 11 in April 2016 and emerged in April 2017, trading as BTU on the NYSE.
- Headquarters
- St. Louis, Missouri, United States (Delaware corporation)
- Ownership
- Public, NYSE: BTU.
- Stage
- Early stage. No investment decision or construction start for the Rawhide pilot. Funding is a $6.25M state grant and a July 2026 DOE selection for award negotiations with no amount disclosed. No rare earth resource is published.
- Listing
- NYSE: BTU
- Revenue
- $3,861.5 million
Reported, Full year 2025.
Source
Capacity
Each date below links to the document the figure came from. A capacity figure with no source is not on this page.
| What | Figure | Status | As of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wyoming Rare Earths pilot plant at Rawhide (mixed rare earth concentrate) | No throughput or output published | Announced | Jul 2026 |
| Rawhide mine coal production (host operation, not rare earth output) | 7.8 million tons of coal produced in 2025 (actual) | Operating | Dec 2025 |
Narrative
Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE: BTU), the St. Louis coal producer founded in 1883, began reporting work on rare earth elements and other critical minerals at its Powder River Basin operations in Wyoming in 2025. In its February 2026 full-year results it said testing since mid-2025 had found critical mineral oxide concentrations of 428 to 1,669 ppm on a dry-ash basis, with heavy rare earths, including yttrium, dysprosium and terbium, estimated at 21 to 28 percent of that total, and it described the initiative as in early stages. The same month the Wyoming Energy Authority recommended $6.25 million from its Energy Matching Funds program for Peabody's Wyoming Rare Earths project, a pilot processing plant at the Rawhide mine north of Gillette intended to make a market-ready mixed rare earth concentrate from Powder River Basin coal; local press reported 55 jobs once complete. On July 1, 2026, the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation named Peabody one of five selectees for award negotiations under a $75 million coal-based pilot topic. DOE did not publish individual amounts and states that selection does not commit funding. The other four selectees are CONSOL Innovations, a Core Natural Resources subsidiary piloting recovery of rare earths and other critical minerals from coal waste tailings at its Pennsylvania Mining Complex; the University of North Dakota, at the Falkirk lignite mine near Underwood, North Dakota; Valor Metals, with an electrochemical liquid-liquid extraction process for coal byproducts; and American Resources Corporation of Fishers, Indiana, an affiliate of ReElement Technologies. In a September 10, 2026 presentation Peabody said it is developing flowsheets and commercialization plans and is nearing agreement with a major customer and a processing partner based on germanium concentrations; germanium is not a rare earth. Peabody has published no rare earth resource statement, pilot throughput, construction date or offtake. Rawhide produced 7.8 million tons of coal in 2025. A separate NETL and University of Wyoming pilot testing rare earth extraction from coal fly ash at the Wyoming Innovation Center near Gillette, operating since early 2025, is not a Peabody project.
Where public sources disagree
- DOE status: DOE's July 1, 2026 release says the five projects are selections for award negotiations and do not commit funding; Peabody's July 7, 2026 release is headlined 'Peabody Awarded Grant', and on its Q2 2026 call the CEO called it a conditional award.
- Wyoming Energy Authority grant: Peabody's February 6, 2026 results say it was recommended for $6.25 million; the Gillette News Record (February 20, 2026) and Peabody's July 7, 2026 release describe it as awarded.
- Rawhide 2025 tonnage: WyoFile (July 8, 2026) says the mine shipped 7.8 million tons in 2025; Peabody's FY2025 10-K reports 7.8 million tons produced.
Latest reports
| Period | Published | Report |
|---|---|---|
| Q2 2026 (quarter to 30 Jun 2026) | 2026-07-29 | Peabody Reports Results for the Quarter Ended June 30, 2026 |
| Q1 2026 (quarter to 31 Mar 2026) | 2026-05-05 | Peabody Reports Results for the Quarter Ended March 31, 2026 |
| Q4 and FY 2025 (calendar year to 31 Dec 2025) | 2026-02-05 | Peabody Reports Results for the Quarter and Year Ended December 31, 2025 |
| Q3 2025 (quarter to 30 Sep 2025) | 2025-10-30 | Peabody Reports Results For Quarter Ended September 30, 2025 |
Across these reports
Across these four releases Peabody's PRB rare earth work moved from feedstock characterization to published concentration ranges (428-1,669 ppm oxides, ~21-28% heavy rare earths), a germanium sampling result, and state and DOE grants for a pilot. No pilot plant schedule, rare earth production or rare earth revenue is reported.
| Measure | What the reports show |
|---|---|
| PRB rare earth / critical mineral characterization | 'Progressing its PRB rare earth initiative' and advancing characterization of feedstock (Q3 25) → critical mineral oxide concentrations of 428-1,669 ppm on a dry-ash basis, heavy rare earths ~21-28% of that, with yttrium, dysprosium, terbium, germanium, gallium and scandium named (Q4 25) → 'promising germanium concentrations from expanded drilling and sampling' (Q1 26). |
| State funding for a pilot plant | Recommended by the Wyoming Energy Authority for US$6.25 million for a pilot plant using Peabody's PRB coal for REE/CM processing (Q4 25) → described as 'the Wyoming Energy Authority grant awarded earlier this year' (Q2 26). |
| Federal (DOE) funding | No DOE item in Q3 25, Q4 25 or Q1 26 releases → 'Awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to advance rare earth elements (REE) and critical minerals (CM) development opportunities in the Powder River Basin' (Q2 26); award amount not stated in the release. |
| Rare earth production or revenue | None reported in any of the four quarterlies; the program is at characterization and pilot-funding stage. |
Stated dates
| Target | First stated | Now | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wyoming Energy Authority US$6.25 million pilot plant grant | Recommended for funding (Q4 2025 release, 2026-02-05); no award date stated | Awarded 'earlier this year' per Q2 2026 release (2026-07-29); exact award date not stated | met |
| REE/CM pilot plant construction or operation | No date stated in any of the four quarterlies | No date stated as of Q2 2026 release | not yet due |
Figures are as the company reported them, linked to each report. This summarizes what changed between reports; it is not a view on the company or its shares.
Sources
- DOE selects five coal-based critical minerals pilots ($75M) — U.S. Department of Energy (2026-07-01)
- Peabody wins federal money for Rawhide rare earth pilot — WyoFile (2026-07-08)
- FY2025 results: REE/CM sampling, ppm ranges, WEA recommendation — Peabody Energy (SEC 8-K) (2026-02-06)
- Peabody awarded DOE grant (press release) — Peabody Energy via PR Newswire (2026-07-07)
- Investor presentation (REE/CM slide, germanium) — Peabody Energy (SEC) (2026-09-10)
- State grants: Peabody rare earth pilot recommended $6.25M — WyoFile (2026-02-04)
- Wyoming Rare Earths grant announced — Gillette News Record (2026-02-20)
- Q2 2026 results — Peabody Energy (SEC 8-K) (2026-07-29)
- Q2 2026 earnings call transcript — Earnings Whispers (2026-07-29)
- Q1 2026 results — Peabody Energy (SEC 8-K) (2026-05-05)
- Form 10-K FY2025 (mine table) — Peabody Energy (SEC) (2026-02-13)
- DOE taps coal waste for critical minerals (all five selectees) — Metal Tech News (2026-07-08)
- DOE selects Core Natural Resources subsidiary — Coal Age (2026-07-09)
- DOE selects UND pilot (Falkirk mine) — Office of Sen. Kevin Cramer (2026-07-01)
- American Resources selection — Hoodline (2026-07-02)
- NETL coal-ash REE pilot plant, Wyoming Innovation Center (not Peabody) — NETL (2025-03-13)
- UW-NETL fly ash pilot testing begins (not Peabody) — University of Wyoming (2025-01-28)
- Peabody Energy company history — Wikipedia (2026-10-19)
How this page is sourced
Everything here comes from public sources — company filings, annual reports, exchange announcements, government releases and trade press. Every figure is linked to the document it came from and carries the date that document was published, because a capacity number without a date is not a fact, it is a rumor with a decimal point.
What is deliberately absent: material nonpublic information. I have spent more than two decades in this industry and a good deal of what I know about these companies I learned under NDA. Those obligations do not expire and they do not bend for a website. Nothing I have been told in confidence appears here in any form, and nothing on this page — or missing from it — should be read as a signal about what I know privately. I hold NDAs absolutely. It is the reason clients tell me things.
Judgment is the other thing left out on purpose. This page reports what has been published and who published it. Whether a target is credible, whether a ramp will hold, whether a capacity figure survives contact with the plant behind it — that is the work I do for clients, and it does not belong in a free reference page.
Where public sources disagree, I say so rather than picking a winner. Where a figure has not been published, the field says so rather than carrying an estimate. An empty field is information too.
Public filings tell you what a company has said. Whether it holds up is a different question, and the one I get hired to answer.
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