Colter Anderson spent his youth in central Wyoming, trailing behind his grandfather, a pioneer in the uranium and petroleum industry, who imparted a love of geology and the outdoors to Colter.

After earning his MS in Geology, with plans to break into oil and gas exploration, a price downturn pushed him toward hard rock mineral projects. After running complex claim-staking projects, technical report writing, and exploration on behalf of other geological firms, Colter decided to stake his own claims.

This is when he realized that his family didn’t own the mineral rights to the family ranch, due to the Stock Raising Homestead Act of 1916. Colter became engrossed with mineral rights, government ownership, and the Homestead Act, and thus began his passion for helping other landowners understand their property’s ownership and mineral potential and the creation of Critical Mineral Management.