The new owners of 5 million combined acres of land and mineral rights in southern Wyoming say they plan to pursue opportunities to expand renewable energy development in addition to existing drilling and mining activity — a potential new source of revenue for the state as a third-party investment company takes over land long held by oil companies Anadarko and Occidental Petroleum.
In a Friday interview with the Star-Tribune, Jon Lamb, the CEO of the purchasing firm Orion Resource Partners, and Johnny DeCooman, the new CEO of Sweetwater, the company taking over management of those lands, said they would be looking into opportunities to diversify the region’s already productive sources of trona and oil into other arenas, including wind, solar and potential rare earth extraction, in an effort to boost the long-term profitability of their $1.33 billion purchase.