Deep below the surface of the Earth, in a Montana mine that once yielded gold, silver, lead and zinc, lies the next frontier of globally coveted minerals.

"So how valuable is this?" asked Scripps News Group's Global Affairs Correspondent Maya Rodriguez.

"Billions. It's worth billions," said Harvey Kaye, executive chairman of U.S. Critical Materials, a private rare-earth deposit and processing company that owns the Sheep Creek mine.

The company provided Scripps News Group with exclusive video showing deposits of rare earth elements.

"There's strong evidence to believe that below the surface there may lie a continuous source, which we would call the 'mother lode,'" Kaye said.

Rare earth elements or rare earth minerals are a series of 17 elements, found mainly at the bottom of the period

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