#Newsmax: #US Must Dig Out of Dependence on #China Rare Earth Minerals
Yes, and the U.S. has abundant quantities of them also, but keeps them untapped subject to environmental opposition to mining them resulting in a regulatory minefield of local, state, and federal rules that has turned permitting into a costly decadeslong process.
In addition, many of the rare earths mined in the U.S. continue to be processed in China because it’s cheaper than having to pay American regulatory environmental and workplace safety costs.
One of the U.S. casualties was Molycorp, a. company that owned a Mountain Pass rare earth mine in California’s Mojave Desert that filed for bankruptcy in June 2015 after the surge in Chinese rare earth exports tanked prices.
Meanwhile, MP Materials is now gearing up to go toe-to-toe with China on commercial scale magnet production.
Read more at: https://www.newsmax.com/larrybell/nickel-lithium-cobalt/2025/07/25/id/1220148/
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