North Dakota landowners, coal industry at odds over critical minerals legislation

North Dakota landowners, coal industry at odds over critical minerals legislation

BISMARCK — An effort to change North Dakota's mining laws is creating fault lines between the coal industry and landowners. House Bill 1459 aims to create a legal framework that would boost commercial development of rare earth elements and other "critical minerals" found in the beds of North Dakota's lignite coal. A landowner group calls the proposal unconstitutional because it affects existing contracts. Rare earth elements are a group of 17 mi…