Mining

Will the environmental forces within the US allow the production of the elements needed for our advanced high tech society. The rare earth metals are first mined then the ore is separated by element and then the ore is refined and then made into a finished product like a magnet. Today Chain has 75% of the mines, 89% of the separation, 91% of the refining and makes 90% of the magnets. In contrast the US has 16% of the mining, zero percent of the separation, zero percent of the refining and one percent of the manufacturing of magnets. In the 1960's the US was the world leader in mining rare earths at a mine in Mountain Pass, CA. The mine was shut down in 2002 because of environmental concerns and reopened in 2017. The mining is cleaner than the separation and refining so all of the rare earths are sent to China for further processing. 30 years ago Chinese president Dung shiao ping side publicly that China will have a monopoly on these elements and they will use that to extract favors from others. The US has known of this threat for all these years but has not taken it seriously.